I Want it All
by londonbella
Summary: In 1858, Damon Salvatore and Clarissa King had a falling out that ended their friendship and resulted in unadulterated spite for each other. As vampires, the two somehow found themselves in the midst of an unorthodox secret arrangement that was mutually beneficial. Now, as Mystic Falls suffers from continuous doom, Damon and Claire must choose a side: to love or to hate?
1. History Repeating

**Hey, everyone! New story time! Please keep in mind that summer vacation starts in like 3/4 weeks, so I'm going to be able to update _a lot. _Free days, free nights...what's a girl to do? So that's why there are all these new stories popping up. Don't worry, I planned this out well :) I can't promise that they'll all be kept, but I can promise that it won't be because I have trouble updating. That's almost never the reason why stories get cut when they do.**

**Anyway, so this is a story taking place from 1x09 and forward. More will be explained into the characters and such...obviously, there'll be flashbacks sometime soon. As you can see from the summary, Claire and Damon's relationship will be _completely _dysfunctional, like you'll realize in this chapter. But there can only be improvement...well, I'm lying to you. **

**Enjoy! Review at the end if you can, please. **

**Disclaimer: Only saying this once. I do not own TVD or any of it's characters/dialogue/episode plot lines. However, I do own my OC character, Clarissa (Claire) King, and any other characters I decide to include. I also own the writing and my original ideas. **

* * *

**History Repeating**

Clarissa King walked the brightly lit streets of her modernized, yet still quaint hometown, Mystic Falls, desperately eyeing her phone for a call or a text of any kind from Lexi Branson. She wondered if there was something wrong with the connection regarding her phone's service, but the device told her she was in a range of full bars. _So why the hell isn't she returning my calls? _The thought boggled Claire, but along with meeting Lexi, she had one more thing on her mind.

It had been since she was turned into a vampire that she'd been back to this godforsaken town, and she _knew _she was a damn good friend to be coming back. Sure, it was a day late, but coming back at all _had _to have given her points of some kind. Besides, it wasn't _her _fault that she'd been detained back in Rio—the entire airport shut down due to the weather. It was just a little…tropical storm.

With a sigh, Claire brought the phone to her ear and waited as the dial rang—once…twice…three times…a fourth time—before it finally cut to voicemail.

"_You've reached Lexi! Leave a message!" _

Hearing the beep, Claire sighed again. "Lexi, I've been calling you ever since I was able to get a flight here. Where the _hell _are you? Call me!" With that said, she angrily ended the fifth or so phone call that she'd made to Lexi, never minding the fifteen text messages.

_Where was it again? _Clarissa thought to herself, pulling her body to a stop as she looked around the town square, finding herself completely unfamiliar with the territory. After all, she hadn't been back since the Civil War era, where the girls wore hoop skirts and big hair and the men wore trousers and riding boots. Now, girls in skimpy little dresses paraded around to _school _and guys wore jeans that pooled around their ankles.

_God save humanity_, she thought bitterly, brushing off the thought with a frustrated sigh. She'd already missed her best friend's _actual _birthday—she wasn't about to miss the day after, either.

"Excuse me," Claire stopped someone in the town square—a young woman, most likely in her twenties, with blondish-brown hair and kind eyes. "Can you tell me where to find Stefan Salvatore?"

* * *

"Rise and shine!"

Stefan Salvatore shot up from his bed to face his brother, who was practically looming over him in his sleep.

"You'll be late for school," finished Damon with a scolding tone.

"What are you—what are you doing?" Stefan demanded, quite displeased with his brother. After all, Damon had managed to kill his best friend and piss him off even _more_—which, until last night, Stefan had thought was impossible.

Damon held out a mug of coffee with a trying smile. "Peace offering."

Stefan nearly rolled his eyes at the lame attempt at Damon getting himself back in Stefan's good graces, and he just shuffled out of bed—without a shirt on. Damon stopped him at the threshold of the bathroom Stefan was about to walk into. "Come on," Damon persisted, practically shoving the mug in his face. "You need it for blood circulation. Does dead flesh good."

Stefan just stared blankly at Damon, refusing to give into him. But could anyone blame him? Damon drove a wooden stake through Lexi's heart without blinking. Damon knew this, of course, and that's why he was trying to apologize for it. "All right, I'm sorry."

"Step aside, please," Stefan said briskly. Just because he couldn't _kill _Damon didn't mean he had to be nice to him.

"I got the town off our back," Damon complained. "It was for the greater good, but I'm _sorry_. And to prove it, I'm not going to feed on a human!" he shouted so Stefan could hear from in the bathroom. In a lower voice, he added, "For at least a…week. I'll adopt the Stefan diet, only nothing with…feathers."

"Because I realize that killing your closest and oldest friend is beyond evil…at yet, somehow, it's worthy of humor," Stefan mocked as he walked out of the bathroom with a shirt over his shoulder so he could change.

Damon seemed to catch on. "Are you mimicking me?"

"Yes, Stefan," Stefan mocked again, sliding his shirt onto his body. "Now that the secret society of vampire haters is off our back, I can go back to my return of how can I destroy Stefan's life this week."

Damon, clearly enjoying the amusement, hesitated once before playing along, as his brother. "And _I _can go back to sulking and Elena-longing and forehead brooding." With a smile, he glanced up at Stefan. "This is fun. I like this," he said, amused.

"And I," began Stefan, never breaking character, "will finally reveal my motive behind my evil and diabolical return to Mystic Falls."

As result of Stefan's testing of the waters, Damon quickly dropped his amused tone. "_Yeah. _I'm done." He turned to leave the room, but spun around to face Stefan and, in a mimicking tone, spoke, "This is just like you, Damon. Always have to have the last word."

With this, Damon left his brother alone to change so he could probably go out and meet with Elena, the love of his pathetic, eternal life. Truth be told, Damon could understand where Stefan was coming from with this girl—she was just like Katherine, just _better_. Looked like Katherine but had qualities that even Katherine couldn't harbor. But when he had Katherine back, Damon couldn't give a rat's ass about whether or not Stefan and Elena lived a long, happy life together. Without Katherine, though…without Katherine would be a different story.

The second Damon's foot landed on the ground at the end of the stairs, the front door chimed, letting both brothers know that there was someone for them. With a sip of his coffee, Damon walked towards the front door, placed his hand on the knob, and opened it.

"Happy—" The pale-haired vampire gave a disappointed frown seeing Damon's smug smile as he realized who it was. "You're not Stefan," she said, wrinkling her nose.

"It's wonderful to see you, too, Clarissa," Damon chimed, giving her a reserved look. "But, no. I'm not my brother. Thank _God_." He scoffed at the mere thought.

"Damon—" Stefan began as he descended the stairs to see who was at the door, but stopped frozen in his tracks seeing the twenty-one year old vampire at the doorstep, right beyond his brother's shoulder. "No," Stefan breathed out, incredulous—but in a good way. He rushed up to the door with a smile on his face, astounded at the sight before him. "Clarissa!"

He pulled her into a hug, to which she returned with a tighter squeeze. "It's Claire now," she said to him when they pulled away to look at each other.

"Claire," Stefan corrected. "I like it. It's more modern. What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked, but then a dark feeling settled over him. _Lexi, _he thought to himself, soon realizing before she even said the words.

"Lexi and I were going to come see you for your birthday," Claire told him, sighing. "But…I was in Rio and they had a tiny little weather problem so the airports shut down."

Stefan raised an eyebrow. "How _tiny _is 'tiny'?"

"…like, a tropical cyclone." Claire shrugged. "Still. They were all being a bunch of babies about it. Anyways, I couldn't get a flight anywhere to come for the actual day, but the airports opened up this morning and I took the first flight out." She gave him a smile, but then soon asked the dreaded question. "Where's Lexi?"

Before Stefan had the chance to respond, Damon did it for him. "She left," Damon said simply, sipping his coffee without a care. Stefan wanted to correct him—to tell Claire what really happened—but he automatically saw where his brother was coming from.

The three of them had been friends since childbirth, really—Damon was the first one born, Clarissa three years later, and Stefan four years after her. During the time that Stefan wasn't around or was too young to understand what a friend meant, Damon and Clarissa were the two toddlers that everyone was sure would end up with each other. The problem was, after an incident of complete misunderstanding, Damon and Clarissa grew to hate each other with each passing year. Clarissa became closer to Stefan as a friend and Damon spent his time with his _other _friends—his older friends. Stefan had always been the "mediator", if you will, in their relationship, and whenever he left them alone, he would come back to a house completely destroyed by their wrath.

Finding out that Damon killed Lexi—that _anyone _killed Lexi, really—would drive Clarissa to do things that no one wanted to see. Since their childhood, she was never the one to show mercy. If she learned that Lexi was gone, she would stop at nothing to find out who it was that killed her—and if she realized it was _Damon, _her nemesis? That wouldn't end well.

As a result, Stefan played along and said nothing to deny his brother's statement.

Claire frowned. "Well, did she say where she was going? She hasn't been answering her phone calls."

"Nope. Promised to send a post card, though," Damon quipped, smirking against his mug. Claire rolled her eyes and turned back to Stefan, trying not to let Damon get underneath her skin.

"Please enlighten me on your decision to let a pest into your home."

"A pest is better than a whore." Clarissa rolled her eyes at Damon's petty attempt to make her angry, which only made him smile.

Stefan sighed. "Knock it off, you two," he warned, looking between the two of them. Damon shrugged and leaned against the door while Clarissa crossed her arms over her chest. He turned to Claire. "Come on, let me take you upstairs. Damon-free zone," he promised.

Claire's eyes widened with joy. "My life's _dream_," she sung and walked into the Salvatore house, brushing past Damon who just gave her a smoldering gaze as she moved past him and followed Stefan up the stairs to his bedroom. "Okay, I have one question and one question _only_," she began as she entered the bedroom and turned around as Stefan shut the door. "Why the _hell _are you back here?"

Stefan sighed. "You might want to sit down for this one."

After Stefan had finished telling Claire about Elena Gilbert, Katherine's look-alike, she stared at him, astounded. "You've got to be _kidding _me," Claire said, her jaw practically on the floor. Stefan was lying on his bed, his arm draped across his forehead. "When will you _learn, _Stefan?"

She got up from her position at the foot of the bed and walked over to his desk, where she shuffled through the papers as Stefan spoke. "It's different, Claire. I promise, she's _not _Katherine."

"Doesn't matter if she's Katherine or not." Claire shrugged and grabbed the picture on Stefan's desk that laid out for anyone to see. She held it up so that his eyes looked over it. "Are you sure you know what you're doing? If this Elena girl finds out that your ex-girlfriend looked like her…"

Stefan sighed and pulled himself off the bed, walking over to the desk to grab the picture out of Claire's hand softly. "She won't," he promised again. "Even if she does, I think we can move past it. She's so…understanding of it all."

Claire scoffed. "Yeah, you don't find that often nowadays. I have to compel all my boyfriends to not be afraid," she pouted, hanging her head and trailing off sadly. "They're all so…_touchy_."

Stefan laughed, and a brief moment passed before he spoke again. "So, how long are you planning to stay?" he asked, hopeful that she wouldn't leave. He hadn't seen her since the seventies, and even then, it _definitely _wasn't back in Mystic Falls.

Claire shot him a smile. "As long as you want, Stef," she piped up, walking around the desk to bump his shoulder. "I've been everywhere you could possibly _imagine. _Bora Bora, Spain, Rome, Athens…Rio, obviously," she chuckled. "I've done it all. Now I've got some time on my hands."

Stefan smiled, but it was almost glum. She recognized this as soon as she sat down on the bed, crossing her legs underneath of her after she kicked her shoes off. "What's wrong?" she asked, straightening.

Stefan hung his head and sighed again. "I…was actually thinking about leaving," he admitted, looking up to meet her confused gaze. "All I've done since I came back is put Elena in harm's way. After I make sure things are safe for her here, I should probably leave."

Claire frowned. "Yeah, like that's going to happen. Once Mystic Falls has you, you _never _get out," she whispered mockingly, earning a small smile from Stefan. Quickly, she jumped up from the bed and walked over to him, leaning against the desk that he was propped against. Again, she bumped his shoulder. "Look, if you really want to leave, we'll leave. We need to do some catching up, anyway. London's nice this time of year," she suggested lightly, letting Stefan see her bright smile. In response to her gesture, he grinned as well, until he had to leave to go talk to this infamous Elena.

* * *

Claire whistled as she bounced down the stairs in the approaching evening, ready to grab a quick drink before she went back upstairs and waited for Stefan to come back so they could catch up on more things. They had just finished talking about what each of them had been up to at the end of the 1980's when Elena had called him, desperate for his help with something urgent. Honestly, Claire thought it was sweet—Stefan being the knight and shining armor for his _girl. _Though, he was intent on leaving, which was probably the end of that love story.

Truth be told, she might've attempted at convincing Stefan to stay if it were under different circumstances—or, perhaps, _better _circumstances. First of all, they were in Mystic Falls, the town from hell, itself. Secondly, this Elena girl looked just like Katherine Pierce, the _bitch _from hell. Katherine, like Clarissa, Damon, and Stefan, was once a resident of Mystic Falls, herself, but she had brought so much death to the town that it was mind-blowing. The reason Claire hated Katherine more than anything was because Katherine had killed her.

Katherine had turned her into a vampire—forcibly. If not for the vampire bitch, she wouldn't be eternal.

What had happened was that Katherine felt threatened by Claire's presence in Mystic Falls. And what's a girl to do when presented with a threat? Get rid of it, of course. But, no, killing her would just not suffice—for some _odd _reason, Katherine found her more useful as a vampire. So, the beautiful demon turned her, forced her to feed, and a week later, Damon and Stefan were vampires as well. Unlike her, though, they hadn't been forced into completing their transition.

_Good thing that bitch is dead, _Claire thought as she poured herself a glass of bourbon. _Otherwise I would have some serious questions for this Elena girl. _

Just as Claire topped the bourbon container and pulled the glass up to her lips to drink, she heard a voice.

"That's my bourbon."

She didn't need to turn around to know who it was. "Funny," Clarissa said, smiling to herself as she turned around to face Damon, who leaned against the threshold between the foyer and the parlor. "I don't see your name on it."

Damon snickered to himself and straightened so that he could walk into the room. "There are certain things in this household that don't _need _my name on it, sugar." He walked forward and simply watched as she drank from the bourbon without hesitation. "For example…my bourbon."

Claire nodded. "Is that all?" she asked, her grey eyes impaling his with a teasing glance.

"Human blood stash," Damon sighed, his eyes giving her a once-over. "That's mine, too."

"I'll make sure to raid that next, then."

Damon scoffed. "Cute." He let out a breath as he watched her sip from the bourbon glass again without even attempting to acknowledge his earlier warning. "So how long has it been? Six months?"

"Seven," she corrected after swallowing down the strong alcohol, setting the empty glass on the alcohol table behind her.

"Have you been _counting?" _Damon accused in a light tone.

Claire smiled. "You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?" Damon hummed in agreement. "When we both know that you've been _waiting _for me to show up one of these days. That's why you were so happy when I showed up on your doorstep this morning," she accused right back, resting the urge to give him a wider, knowing smile.

Damon's eyes drifted up to meet hers, and they stayed that way for a long time before she was thrown, her back hitting the hard surface of a wall, earning a grunt from her mouth in the searing pain that faded almost as quickly as it had came. Damon's arms kept her trapped within his reach and his body kept her pinned to the wall. "And we both know _why _you even came back in the first place. Just couldn't get enough of me."

Claire scoffed. "Please. I could've gone _years_ without you." She used her own vampire strength to move them, now throwing Damon onto the couch in the middle of the parlor. He watched as she spread her knees and climbed on top of him, straddling his hips. He placed his hands on her waist and kept her situated. "But, I mean…now that we're here…"

She hovered for a split moment, and with understanding between the both of them, Damon leaned forward and began to kiss her soft, sweet skin, ever so often brushing his teeth against her neck. This is what they'd been doing behind Stefan's back for _years _on end—ever since the late twenties, actually. Stefan thought that his brother and his best friend were sworn enemies…and, they were. Really, they hated each other to no end. But there was a time when that hatred turned into something much more—passion. That passion drove them to one night, and then another night, and soon, it became routine. But their hatred still stood strong, and whenever in front of their mutual party, they would act like they always did. But behind closed doors, it wasn't _hate _they were expressing.

It was never continuous or exclusive. It was one of those things when, if they crossed paths and Stefan happened to not be around them, they wouldn't spend so much time talking about their hatred but rather not talking at all. There was always an attraction there, from the moment that they'd first really _noticed _each other. But after they had their falling out, things had never been the same.

But their time in the late twenties wasn't the first time truly _showing _how intimate they could be. Though it was their first actual time sleeping together back in the twenties, even back in eighteen sixty-four, they'd kissed once or twice by no fault of their own. They were merely "swept up in the moment", as Damon had said once to her.

His lips kissed her skin in broken parts, but nevertheless made desire ripple down to her lower half. "I'll be honest, I missed this, Clarissa."

"It's Claire now," she said, closing her eyes, focusing in on the way Damon's lips felt against her. "Just Claire."

"Claire," he corrected, and the way he said it sounded so..._different. _They hated each other, they verbally _abused _each other, and yet this was how they reacted. It seemed quite ridiculous, but it had always been inevitable. The one thing they could control was their feelings for each other. Though their sexual encounters had changed the way they _looked _at each other, it did nothing to change how they felt. They did not kiss; they decided this a long time ago. Kissing would just ruin it all. Just because their attraction had beaten the best out of them, it was no reason to go changing everything.

"How long will Stefan be gone?" Damon murmured against her, which caused an electric hum to be sent down her spine. She shivered as a result against him, and an involuntary groan escaped her mouth as she responded.

"I have no clue," Claire answered, rolling her hips unconsciously, desperate for any source of friction she could possibly hope for. Her hands ran down his chest, feeling the skin underneath his shirt. The action coaxed a moan out of Damon's mouth against her shoulder, and his teeth skimmed the pale feature. "But I suggest we make this fast."

Damon pulled away from her shoulder and looked up at her. For a second, Claire thought that he would kiss her, but he didn't. A smirk appeared on his lips, and she gave him one in return. He gripped her hips tightly before pushing and pulling her so that she was lying on the couch, and he fit his body between her legs. Damon's hand skimmed the side of the thigh that was slightly pushed over the couch's edge, and he pulled it so that it coiled around his waist. It wouldn't be long until the satisfaction consumed them both, but that was what this was all about.

Satisfaction.

* * *

Claire had fixed her hair, a glass of bourbon whiskey, _and _her shirt before Stefan arrived home. He had walked through the door shortly after Damon had left to go to this "Mystic Grill", a town bar/restaurant that he _assured _her would be worth her while. But that invitation was meant to be on her _own _time—though they were sometimes intimately involved, that didn't require much talking on their part. Whenever they started talking, they would start arguing…that was just the way it was. Clarissa was relieved to find that Stefan didn't suspect a single thing when he walked through the threshold.

"How was your meeting with your girl?" she asked, returning to the foyer instead of going upstairs like she'd planned.

Stefan sighed. "Not good," he admitted. Claire raised an eyebrow in prompt, and Stefan inhaled to begin. "Damon threatened Bonnie—a friend of Elena's. Bonnie happens to be a witch. A Bennett witch."

Claire took a moment, but eventually, she opened her mouth, "Wasn't 'Bennett' the last name of that witch Katherine had under her sleeve—"

"Emily," Stefan answered for her with a nod. "Yeah. Emily Bennett. Bonnie's a descendant of hers. Damon threatened her over this…crystal. Katherine's crystal."

Claire crossed her arms, confounded at his statement. "Katherine's crystal? What would Damon want with Katherine's crystal?"

"I have no clue."

The blonde vampire sighed. "You know, is it just me or is history starting to repeat itself? A strange Katherine look-alike...a Bennett witch...two Salvatore brothers..._me_..."

"History will _not _repeat itself," Stefan said firmly, pointing at her. "Elena won't get hurt by all of this. Remember, we're leaving after I know she's safe. And I won't know that until I figure out what Damon wants with this crystal." Clarissa held up her hands in surrender before bringing her glass of alcohol to her lips. "Speaking of, where _is _Damon?"

Claire finished taking a sip of her alcohol before responding. "Oh, he went out a few minutes ago. Said something about a drink at 'The Grill'." She smiled vindictively. "Probably going to hit on some old grandmas. They're the only ones who would date him." She couldn't help but laugh at her own joke, and she found comfort when Stefan laughed, too. "That was a good one, wasn't it?"

"It was," Stefan admitted, but then pursed his lips.

Claire groaned. "Oh, what is it, Stefan? You have your thinking face on." She waited for him to answer her by taking a large gulp of her alcohol, feeling the sting that came afterwards.

"Do you think you can play nice tonight?" Stefan asked. Claire raised an eyebrow. "With Damon, I mean?"

She kept her eyebrow raised. "…Why?"

* * *

According to Stefan, Claire didn't need to change to go out to this restaurant, so she just slipped on a blazer and went with Stefan to this hang out place. It was in the town square, surrounded by nice little shops and the courthouse that was just around the corner. She remembered when the town square was filled with archaic apothecaries and recreational activities. Now, it was full of people and buildings.

To be honest, she liked it better this way. The era she'd been born in was a little rocky, to say the least.

"Bourbon, please," Claire ordered as soon as she came up to the bar, sitting right next to Damon. Damon turned his head towards her in surprise, but another voice caught his attention.

"So, Stefan…" Damon turned his head again to see his brother walking towards him, doing that same childish mockery he had been doing from earlier in the morning. "You know, I've been thinking…I think we should…start over. Give this brother thing another chance. We used to do it oh, so well once upon a time." Stefan gave a smoldering look that was supposed to copy Damon's.

Claire knotted her eyebrows at them curiously and merely watched as Damon responded in a lower, brooding tone. "I don't…_Damon. _I can't trust you to be a nice guy. You—you kill everybody, and you're so mean. You're so mean, and…"

"I'm sorry," Claire cut in, earning the brothers' attention. "Are you two…seriously _mocking _each other?" She looked at Damon. "Because if you're mocking Stefan, you're doing a _terrible _job."

Damon shrugged. "What can I say? My brother's _really _hard to imitate. And then I have to go to _that _lesser place…" Claire rolled her eyes as Stefan ordered a coffee from the bartender, who had just put down her drink in front of her.

"So what's with the bottle?" Stefan asked, looming over his brother's shoulder.

Damon let out a sigh. "I'm on edge. Crash diet, and I'm _trying _to keep a low profile."

"Ha," Claire laughed, nearly spitting out her drink. Damon gave her a sour smile as he watched when she recovered from her near spill. "_Damon Salvatore _keeping a low profile? I'm sorry, has hell frozen over?"

Damon chuckled. "Well, you should know. I hear you visit on the weekends."

"You know," Stefan intervened, pulling his brother's attention back. "You could always just leave. Find a new town to turn into your own personal 'Gas N' Sip'," he suggested.

Damon shrugged. "I'll manage." The bartender brought Stefan's coffee to him, and the younger Salvatore thanked him for the beverage. Damon eyed his brother carefully, decoding his intentions. "You know, you don't have to keep any eye on me. Especially not with _her _help." He pointedly turned to Claire, who hadn't caught onto his sentence.

When she did, she gasped and put her hand to her chest. "Oh, you mean me?" She snapped her fingers, disappointed. "And here I thought I was making your Top Ten Nights list." Claire pouted, earning an eye roll from Damon as he poured himself another shot. "Anyway, Stefan and I aren't here to keep an eye on you."

"So why _are _you here?" Damon asked, turning to his brother this time for information. Stefan shrugged.

"Why not?" he retorted and grabbed the bottle of alcohol from Damon, swiping it from the counter and moving over to the dartboard. Claire drained her shot before joining the two brothers, who had just started a game.

"Winner plays me," Claire said, dropping to the booth beside Stefan, who was waiting for Damon to write the names down on the chalkboard before they began.

Damon scoffed from all the way over at the dartboard. "Doesn't matter who plays you, you'll still lose."

Claire laughed. "Oh, you better be _praying _that it's not you, Damon, or I'll take you for everything you've got."

Stefan sighed. "Seriously, when will you two learn to play nice with each other?"

Damon snuck a glance at the blonde-haired vampire sitting beside his brother, but he quickly averted his eyes. "Never, Stefan. Never."

"What was that fight even about, anyways?" Stefan asked as Damon stood by his side and he braced to throw his first dart. "All I remember was that you two were screaming and shouting and our parents had to break it up."

"He broke a vase in my house," Claire answered as Stefan's dart hit a good position on the board. She got up from her position at the booth and marked the score for the youngest within the three. "My parents thought I did it."

Damon sighed. "And then she retaliated by breaking father's prized drinking glass. He thought I did it," he said, throwing the dart at the board while Claire was still at it. She stepped out of the way just in time for it to hit the board instead of _her_—not that it would hurt her much, anyways.

Claire shrugged and wrote the score for Damon on the other side of the board. "Not my fault you were so naïve to think that I could actually _stand _to see you after the trouble you'd gotten me into."

She moved out of the way for Stefan to make his shot, and the three of them watched in silence as Stefan hit the very center of the board, scoring him the maximum points possible. "Lucky shot," Damon brushed it off as Claire wrote the score on Stefan's side of the board.

"More like a carefully honed skill over many decades," Stefan retorted.

Damon took a look over at the board. "You're beating me," he said in a sore-loser tone.

"Well, _yeah_," Stefan said as if it were blatantly obvious. "It's because I'm better than you." He smiled.

"I'm onto you," Damon accused in a skeptical tone. He looked over at Claire. "Both of you. Reverse psychology. I mean, it's a _little _transparent, but I admire the effort."

"You prefer the brooding forehead?" Stefan asked, mocking his own description that Damon has indulged in time and time again.

"Seriously," Damon said, now annoyed. "What game do you two think you're playing?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Claire interrupted, grabbing the dart from the board and smiling as Damon turned to her. "Darts." She threw the dart straight at Damon, and he caught it with his inhuman speed so that it didn't go flying past him. He smiled bitterly, not appreciating the literal answer to his question. He turned back to Stefan, who was laughing.

"Come on, Stefan. Really. What are you trying to do?"

"That's a funny question," Stefan said, emphasizing his words, "considering the fact that I have ben asking you that for _months_." Damon just bowed his head, shaking it. "It's _frustrating, _isn't it?"

Damon took a moment to respond. "Touché," he goaded, though his tone was less than pleased.

* * *

Stefan had won darts, and Damon had watched while Claire and Stefan went back and forth during the game, eventually coming out to Stefan winning, again. Moving along with their plan, Stefan asked Claire to come with them to continue the night, but she politely declined and decided to stay at the Grill, where she would be waiting for Stefan if he needed her help. The whole reason she'd come was so that she could back Stefan up if need be. Damon was strong, and in truth, she wasn't the strongest vampire out there, but she was well fed. Unlike Stefan, she could _control _her diet, somewhat. It was her emotions that were out of control at times.

A while later, Stefan returned from his alone time with Damon—around Clarissa's third drink. As soon as he walked in, she made a sound and pulled the glass away from her lips. "How'd it go?" she asked.

To be honest, she was quite concerned with Damon's ulterior motive, as well. Claire wished her "special enemies" deal with Damon would cause him to tell her his secret agenda, but that was _never _the case when it came to Damon…or even to her. She wouldn't be so open and willing if he asked her a question about her personal motives.

"Not good." Stefan slid into the booth and looked around, cautiously looking for a lurking Damon. "He's…he's trying to…_bring her back_."

Claire knotted her eyebrows. "Bring her back?" she repeated, shaking her head. "Bring _who _back?"

"Katherine."

At this, her confusion turned into fear. _"What?" _she almost shrieked. Stefan nodded. "You mean, like, bring her back from the _dead, _bring her back?"

Now Stefan shook his head in rejection to her question. "No. No, _that's _the thing!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Claire, Katherine never…_died_."

"What do you mean Katherine never _died_—?"

Stefan cut her off. "Claire, come on. I'll explain everything, but we need to get going—_now_," he said, getting out of the booth immediately. At the urgency, Claire jumped up and left a few bills on the table for her drinks, but wasted no time in following Stefan.

As promised, he'd explained everything to her on the way to the cemetery—or, more specifically, Fell's Church. As Stefan described what Damon had told him, the location began to make more sense…Katherine, who was "burned" in the church was instead trapped _beneath _it, sealing Katherine away until someone could get her out. Damon's goal was to open that tomb and get Katherine out…which wasn't such a bad thing when you thought about it.

They finally found Damon, who had been fixed onto a tree with a branch through his torso. Stefan immediately rushed to help Damon, and the vampire groaned on the ground. "Oh, that hurts. _This _is why I feed on people." Claire rolled her eyes beside Stefan, but watched as the young witch girl was drawing a circle in the ground.

"Stefan," the possessed witch said, spotting him. Her eyes shifted to Claire, and the witch straightened. "Clarissa King."

"Do I know her?" Claire whispered, looking over at Stefan. "I don't know her."

Stefan looked forward at Bonnie. "Hello, Emily." At this, Claire widened her eyes and turned back to the young, unfamiliar witch being possessed by Emily Bennett.

"These people don't deserve this," the witch defended herself. "They should never have to know such evil."

"What do you mean 'evil'?" Stefan asked, realizing that he hadn't heard the full story.

"Emily!" Damon shouted behind Stefan. "I swear to _God, _I will make you regret this!"

"I won't let you unleash them into this world!"

"Them?" Stefan repeated.

Claire shook her head at Emily. "But…you only sealed _Katherine _in that tomb."

Stefan turned around to his brother, realizing. "What part of the story did you leave out, Damon?"

"What does it matter?"

Hearing his brother's evasive answer, Stefan turned around to face Bonnie. "Emily, tell me what you did!"

"To save her," began the witch, "I had to save _them_."

"You saved _everyone _in the church?" Stefan repeated, now realizing why this was such a bad thing that his brother did not want him finding out. If all the vampires got out of that tomb...all hell would break lose.

"With one comes all."

"All of the vampires rounded up into the church, Stefan that's twenty-seven vampires…" Claire shook her head. "With a grudge like that, they'd slaughter the whole town."

Damon staggered onto his feet. "I don't care about that!" he claimed. "I just want Katherine."

Stefan looked at his brother. "I knew I shouldn't have believed a single word that comes out of your mouth. This isn't about love, this is about revenge!"

"The two aren't mutually exclusive."

"Damon, you can't do this!"

"Why not?" raved Damon, his eyes filling with hatred. "They killed _twenty-seven _people and they called it a war battle. They deserve whatever they get!"

"Twenty-seven _vampires_, Damon! They were _vampires_. You can't just…_bring _them back!" Stefan yelled, holding his brother by the collar. Damon, in turn, grasped Stefan's equally as tight.

"This town deserves this," he claimed.

"You're blaming innocent people for something that happened one hundred and forty-five years ago."

Damon released himself from Stefan's grasp. "There is _nothing _innocent about these people. And don't think for a _second _that it won't happen again! They already know too much, and they'll burn your little grandwitch right next to us when they find out," Damon accused, pointing towards the witch in the circle. "Trust me."

"Things are different now," Emily assured him, but Damon wasn't taking it.

He began in a pleading tone now, "Don't do this.

"I _can't _free them," the possessed witch said, enunciating it out for Damon to understand. "I won't."

Despite Damon's protests, the witch in the middle of the elaborate circle yelled a word and raised her arms and, within a moment, there was a ring of fire surrounding her. Damon cried out, but both Stefan and Claire stopped him from going anywhere near the fire. Damon pleaded, he shouted…he tried to do anything to stop the possessed witch from burning the crystal around her neck. All of a sudden, there was a cry of the possessed witch's real name, but Claire didn't have time to worry about that. Stefan went after the girl who cried out Bonnie's name, and Claire held Damon back from the fire. But the crystal was launched into the air, displaying a burst of fire, and Damon cried out for it as hot sparks floated to the ground as a result.

The fire soon went out, leaving the world around them dark. Claire relaxed her hold on Damon, seeing as everything was now over, but he didn't stop there. She wasn't fast enough to restrain him, and Damon flashed forward and bit into the witch's neck inside the now useless circle, and the witch screamed loudly as a result. As soon as it happened, Claire flashed forward and forced Damon off of the witch with the help of Stefan who later joined in.

"You're _insane_!" Claire shouted as they looked over the body of the witch that wasn't to blame for this. As quickly as Stefan realized what happened, he bent down and checked for a sign of life and began to save her. "Do you _realize _what all this can cause? What bringing _her _back can cause?"

"You always hated her," Damon snarled. "You wouldn't understand!"

"I have a right to hate her!" Claire shouted at him, her teeth gritted. "For a good reason, too, Damon." He fell completely silent at this, and she just shook her head. "You have _major _issues Damon—_major _issues."

Damon gave a bitter laugh. "Nothing we didn't know _before_."

"Her neck," the teenage girl exclaimed as she watched the wound heal from Stefan's vampire blood. "It's healing."

After everything had calmed down and Damon went to be off in peace, Elena led the frightened witch into her car, attempting to ease some of her worries until they reached home. Once her friend was inside, she approached Stefan and Claire, who were waiting for her to come over to them. As soon as Elena reached them, she spoke, "Is she in danger of becoming a—"

"No," Stefan said immediately. "No, she has to die with my blood in her system, so keep an eye on her tonight and make sure that nothing happens and once it leaves her system, she'll be fine."

Elena nodded before inhaling and turning to Claire. "I-I'm sorry…who are you?"

"Elena, this is Clarissa—Claire," Stefan corrected himself as he introduced Claire to Elena, the uncanny Katherine look-alike. Claire was staring at her in a way that she was _sure _made Elena feel uncomfortable, but…she just couldn't help herself. Just looking at Elena made her angry, but she had to hone in on the girl's heartbeat to stop herself. "She's my friend from back in eighteen sixty-four, she just…came for a visit. Claire, this is Elena."

Elena nodded, and this time, Claire spoke. "All right, well, Stefan, I'm going to head back to the house now," she said softly. Stefan nodded.

"I'll be back soon," he promised, and with that said, Claire gave Elena a small smile.

"Nice to meet you…Elena."

"You, too."

* * *

Damon had spent most of his night out in the woods, feeding on his own sorrow. The crystal was gone and he had no way of getting Katherine back, so he would now leave—at least, that's what he told his brother. So, with his depressed emotions, he made his way back to the house to find Clarissa in his room. With a heavy sigh, he shook his head. "You made yourself clear, now get out before I have to make you leave."

"You think that was me making myself clear back there?" she scoffed, standing up from the foot of his bed. "Damon, you have _no _idea what I mean when I say that I will _not _have Katherine back to ruin my life."

"Well, you won't have to worry about it now, will you?" Damon shot her a bitter smile as he stripped his jacket and she watched. The sight of her staring made him remember that she wasn't just an enemy, and at this, he smirked to conceal his pain. "So are we going to start or do you want to yell at me some more?"

"_Tonight_?" Claire asked, looking at him incredulously. "You want to do this _tonight_? You're a complete mess!"

Damon shrugged. "Give it a couple minutes, I'll find…_some _way to get over it," he said, eyeing the clothing he wanted so badly to strip. She scoffed.

"Well, you certainly bounce back fast."

"Yeah, but you knew that already."

"You know, you're a real _asshole_," she said as he neared her, but she didn't flinch once. "Do you know how _angry _you made me tonight? Not just me, but your brother, too?" Damon rolled his eyes.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about him."

"Hard not to talk about him when you're his brother and I'm his best friend."

Damon frowned. "You were my best friend once."

Claire scoffed again. "Yeah, those were the days. I distinctly remember you stealing all of my food and getting me in trouble for everything. That vase was the last straw. You make me _sick_."

"The feeling is mutual." But, as a contradiction to those words, Damon pulled his shirt over his head, intent on getting what he wanted. "I don't suppose I can persuade you to believe that I wasn't the one who broke that vase?"

"Absolutely not. You're a natural born liar." But, despite her words, he caught her staring with lust at him. The second her eyes flickered up to meet his, he could see that she was done arguing with him.

Damon looked down at her, and she flickered her gaze up at him. "You want to shut up now?" His hand extended and his fingers grazed the hem of her shirt, giving her the slightest touch on her torso. The touch was light and barely noticeable, but it made her spine shudder.

She thought to protest against his obvious efforts to get her in his bed, but after much thought she decided against fighting him. Damon just made her so..._angry. _When Claire became angry, she was blinded by emotions that crept their way in to replace the rage. So, she just took his hand and pulled it up so that her shirt was dragged with it, and he took that as his answer.

And, as usual, there was no more talking.

* * *

**Pretty dysfunctional, huh? Do they hate each other? Do they like each other? We just will never know. ****Well, _I_ know, of course ;)**

**More will be coming soon! Please review if you can!  
**

_**Love, **_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_


	2. The Turning Point

**Hey, everyone. I know I just updated this story like a few days ago, but this chapter was so short and easy to do, I figured I'd just get it over with. So it's not a long chapter, but it's all I could fit in for now. Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Turning Point**

Claire was lounging on the couch in the parlor, turning a page of one of the books she'd found on a shelf in the library. She sat in silence with Damon, who was staring out the window, letting himself bask in the sun on his skin with a glass of bourbon in his hand.

"Do me a favor, Damon?" Stefan sighed as he entered the room, freshly dressed for the day. "Try and keep the girls you bring home quiet. I couldn't sleep last night." Damon smirked to himself, but neither Claire or Damon shared any secret glance towards each other to give it away.

She merely turned the page of her book and said, "I heard it, too, Stefan, and I don't think it was just the girl screaming."

Damon scoffed to himself, but then snuck a glance at his brother, who was at the threshold between another room and the one they stood in. "Doesn't matter, anyways. I thought we agreed upon leaving."

Stefan nodded. "We did," he said, almost sternly. "So…any idea of where you'll go?"

"I don't know." Damon shrugged, turning back to the window and sighing. "London, maybe? See some friends…"

Claire snapped her head up and looked at Stefan as he rounded the couch in her view. She gave Stefan an alarmed glance, silently begging him to talk Damon out of going to London. With a slight smile, Stefan responded, "You don't have any friends, Damon."

"You're right, Stefan. I only have you, so…" He turned around. "Where are we goin'?"

Claire accidentally let a laugh burst from her lips. "That's funny, Damon, because _you _are not joining _me _and _Stefan _wherever _we_ go," she said, putting emphasis on the correct words as she pointed to her subjects.

"But we're a team, guys!" Damon mocked, which earned Stefan to hang his head and Claire to roll her eyes. "Don't you remember? The Salvatore brothers and the King girl! Every kid on the _block _wished they had a friendship like we did."

"Did," Claire pointed out, earning Damon's attention. "Key word there. _Did_."

"We are going to live our lives as far away from _you _as possible," Stefan added on, giving his brother a light smile. Damon frowned.

"But we could travel the world together! We could try out for _The Amazing Race,_" he suggested lightly, looking between Claire and Stefan for any sign of laughter.

Claire just flipped a page of her book and sighed, "Been there, done that." She looked up at him. "You didn't get the postcard?"

"Seriously," Stefan said, the urgency tracing his tone when his brother's attention was pulled back to him. "Where are you going? Because we're _not _staying in this town."

Before Damon was able to answer his brother's question, the old-fashioned bell at the boarding house door rang promptly, stopping all conversation. Claire, who was as confounded as Stefan and Damon, put down her book and swung her legs off of the couch to walk over to them. "Are we expecting company?"

"No…" Stefan trailed off, wrinkling his forehead before walking over to the door to answer it. Damon and Claire both looked at each other for a split moment before trying to make their way over to the door as well.

"I'm here to see Damon," Sheriff Forbes told Stefan when he answered the door.

Stefan, though still confused, nodded. "Uh…sure. Okay." As he said the last word, Damon and Claire approached his side. Though Damon knew who it was at the door, as did Stefan, Claire didn't. But the words on the visitor's jacket spelled it all out for her.

"Sheriff," Damon said curtly. "What a surprise."

"Sorry to bother you, but…we need to talk," she said cryptically. Stefan and Claire were still confused, but Damon just nodded and shrugged.

"Come in," he said politely and stepped aside, letting the Sheriff through the threshold. He closed the door behind her and the Sheriff walked into the middle part of the foyer, where Stefan and Claire waited. Sheriff Forbes turned to Claire and her eyebrows raised.

"Who's this?" Liz asked as Damon approached her from over her shoulder.

"Claire King," Claire said, giving the Sheriff her best warm smile. She held out her hand and the Sheriff took it gracefully, but was still skeptical. "I, uh…I'm just visiting here."

"King?" Liz said, slowly realizing. "Are you a Founding Family here?"

"Why, yes I am," Claire said, giving the Sheriff a brighter smile. Though she was anything _but _innocent, she always found it easy to make people believe so. "You might know my grandfather. Jack King? He died a few weeks ago."

Though she hated Mystic Falls, she was never one to not keep up with family affairs. Truth be told, she hated Jack King. He was a bitter old man who was descended from a line of bastards—her father, who couldn't keep his hands off of a pretty woman for his life, had at least two more children with different women. But he was married to her mother, and she was their only child since the age of eighteen, when her sister, Amelia, ran away from home. When Claire turned, she kept a close eye on her parents, and they eventually died of old age.

"That's right," Liz said, nodding her head up and down. "Jack King. He was a member of the Council." She paused. "Are you planning on staying here for a while?"

Claire glanced over at Stefan, but she eventually turned back to Liz with a light laugh. "Well, nothing's definite," she said evasively.

Liz gave another nod. "Well, if you do plan on staying here, you should stop by City Hall sometime. I'm sure Damon can fill you in on what's been going on in Mystic Falls." Claire nodded hopefully, and Liz turned to Damon. "Speaking of…" She turned to the vampire beside her. "Damon?"

"Of course. Here, let's go outside," Damon said, giving Liz a signature smile before leading her in the direction of the patio. Stefan and Claire watched as Damon led Sheriff Forbes away from them, but he knew that they would be listening to the conversation. There was obviously something wrong in Mystic Falls, yet again.

"Um, I hope you don't mind the secrecy," Damon apologized to the Sheriff as they walked outside and he shut the patio door. "Stefan doesn't know about this yet and Claire prefers to be kept out of it when she can. I'd like to keep it that way."

"Of course," agreed Sheriff Forbes. "Kids are too young to be brought into this, and people shouldn't have to be if they don't want to."

With a nod, Damon continued, "So, what do you need?"

Sheriff Forbes took in a breath. "There's been another attack," she said, her voice somber. "A female victim, her throat torn out, completely drained of blood. It fits the pattern."

Damon knotted his eyebrows. "I-I'm sorry. I don't understand. I thought I already solved the problem…" He didn't dare mention staking Lexi because he knew Claire and Stefan were listening from inside.

Sheriff Forbes shrugged. "She must've turned someone. Or multiple someones. I don't know."

Inside, Stefan and Claire sat on the couch in the parlor, listening intently to the conversation. Stefan turned to Claire and raised his eyebrows at her. "Did you…?"

Claire shook her head. "No, I'm perfectly fine on blood bags," she whispered, but they knew what this meant instantly—it was Damon.

Outside, Sheriff Forbes continued, "The story for the town is another animal attack, but I'm not sure how long we can keep lying to them. The Council's in an uproar. We thought we were past this."

Damon was silent, but eventually, he nodded. "Okay…so…so what do we do?" He tried his best at playing the timid little human, and because of his inflated ego, he wasn't really amazed at his acting skills.

"You're the only one who's ever taken on a vampire," Sheriff Forbes said. "We were hoping you could tell us."

Claire turned to Stefan, her eyes curious. "Damon staked a vampire for the Council?" Stefan nodded, but he didn't dare say anything else. "Do you know who it was?"

Stefan shook his head. "It was someone we'd never seen before. Damon probably turned her to be the patsy for his mistake." He was lying through his teeth now, but he didn't care. The consequences of Claire finding out was more dangerous than lying to her.

After Damon and the Sheriff finished their "secret" conversation, Damon held the door open for her and gave her a reserved smile.

"Thank you for stopping by."

Sheriff Forbes nodded. "Let me know what you come up with."

"Absolutely," agreed Damon. Liz turned around to Claire, who was on the couch with Stefan.

"It was nice to meet you, Claire," she said with a hopeful smile. Claire rose from her position and nodded, giving off her innocence again.

"Yeah, you too," she said warmly, and watched as Sheriff Forbes exited the Salvatore house. As soon as the door was shut and Liz was away from it, there was a flash, and Stefan was at Damon's throat, holding him against the door by his weak strength.

As soon as Damon's back thumped against the wood, Claire flashed up to them both and watched as Stefan growled, "What is wrong with you? You killed somebody?"

Damon released himself from Stefan's hold, pushing his brother away from him. "Get off of me," he snarled. "A—don't touch me. B—if I had, I wouldn't have been so _obvious _about it. C—there's another vampire in town."

Stefan was quiet for a moment. "That's impossible."

"Obviously _not_," Damon said lightly as he turned away from Stefan and Claire. Claire just held up her hand and shook her head.

"Okay, okay, then who is it? Who would be _dumb _enough to leave a body like that in the middle of the street?"

Damon sighed, exasperated. "Ah, what do we care? We're leaving anyway, right?"

"No, I _can't _leave now and you _know _that," Stefan retorted in an obvious tone when he stepped closer to his brother, who was turned away from him. "How are we supposed to find this person?"

Claire scoffed. "If this vampire is dumb enough to leave a body in that condition, there must be a trail of them _somewhere. _It's probably a newbie. Shouldn't be that hard to track," she promised, placing a hand on Stefan's arm. "Look, I'll take care of it, okay? You should probably just make sure Elena's safe."

"No, _I'll _take care of it," Damon retorted, turning around to face Claire, who just scoffed and crossed her arms. "And I don't need your help."

"I wasn't asking if you _wanted _help, Damon, I was _telling _you that I will handle this so Stefan and I could leave…_without you_."

"Honestly," Stefan snapped, looking between both of them. "Can't you just work together? It's not that hard."

Damon, without removing his eyes from Claire, spoke, "Let the adults handle this, Stefan."

"Really?" Stefan returned, his eyes wide. "Because, right now, you two are acting like children." Neither vampire said anything. "Work together on this. Twice the strength, faster the kill. Okay?" No one answered him, so Stefan answered it himself. "Okay. I'm going to go find Elena," he said quickly before turning, brushing past Claire, and exiting the household.

Damon and Claire stood staring at each other for a long time. "You _did _scream loudly, though," he pointed out, a small smirk on his face.

She gave him a copycat smile. "I wasn't the only one."

* * *

"This is the most useless piece of _garbage _I have ever seen!" Claire said, frustrated, as she threw down the vampire-tracking device that Damon had given her so they could track the new vampire without delay. The compass's handle wouldn't stop flickering between her position and Damon's position until it became violent, spazzing out of control at the magnetic force pulling it to vampires. "How the _hell _are we supposed to track a vampire when it won't stop flickering between us?"

Damon thought to himself, but suddenly, he had an idea. "Easy," he said and snatched the watch up from her hand. She gave an offended sound, but he closed the watch and pulled out his phone. "We get a human to do it for us."

Damon had called Caroline Forbes, a perky high school teenager who was apparently best friends with Elena. According to Damon, he'd been compelling her ever since his return to Mystic Falls. At first, he attempted to be her boyfriend, but then, after Elena intervened, he'd just used her as someone to compel and manipulate.

"You are _all _class," Claire scoffed at him as the bell run on the front door for the second time. Claire answered the door this time, and her presence was greeted with a confused look on Caroline's face. "Caroline Forbes?"

"Yeah…" Caroline trailed off. "Who are you?"

"Claire King," she said quickly, not wasting time on the introduction. "Come on, Damon and I have something for you to do."

Damon met Caroline in the foyer as she walked inside, and when she saw him, Caroline sighed. Still under the compulsion, she was obliged to do what he said, but that didn't mean she had to like him. "What did you want me over here for?"

Damon just gave a wide grin before looking into her eyes and beginning the compulsion. "I need you to take this"—he held out the compass and placed it in her zombie-like hand—"and track a vampire for me. After you leave here, go to the town square and begin from here. Call me when it's done, all right?"

Caroline piped up. "Okay," she agreed, and gripped the compass in her hand before turning and seeing herself out on her own.

When she was gone, Damon sighed inwardly and Claire just stared after the seemingly perfect high school girl. "So, are you trying to be a pedophile now or is it just a phase?" she questioned, turning to him and glaring into his sea-colored eyes with curiosity.

"_She _came on to _me_," Damon defended himself pointedly. "Sort of like you," he added.

Claire laughed. "Is _that _what you think?"

"No, it's what I _know_."

"Let's not forget who kissed _me _first," Claire pointed out firmly, to which Damon instantly shut up. "Yeah, that's right. Don't say anything. Because we both know it's true."

"Well, I was talking about when we started our little…arrangement," he trailed off, his eyes skimming over the length of her body. Claire sighed.

"All right, I'll concede to that," she agreed, mumbling. Damon's lips curled up in a victorious smile. "But you _know _it all really began with that kiss."

Damon sighed, his eyes moving from her face down her curves and to her feet. "Yeah, I guess you're right." All of a sudden, his hands reached out and he gripped her hips violently, his fingers creating a bruise that would eventually heal through the slight strip of skin that had shown as a result of his violent jerk. "How long do you think it'll take Caroline to find the vampire?"

"Long enough," Claire said sharply before used her steady fingers to rip open all of the button's on Damon's shirt without a single one popping off.

Caroline had called by the time they had both wrapped up and Claire poured herself a drink. They were in the middle of an argument about where Damon would go when he picked up his phone and heard Caroline say that she had found the vampire. After he told her of the address, Caroline sighed, _"So what do I do now?" _

Damon jerked his head in the position of the door as he slipped on his leather jacket and opened the door. He walked out first and Claire walked out behind him while he responded, "Just wait. We'll be there in a minute."

"_Can you hurry? I have things to do." _

Damon and Claire both appeared at the warehouse in which Caroline had found the vampire, and Damon stood before the blonde teenager and said in a low voice, "You can give me that."

He took the compass out of Caroline's hand and she spoke, "So why did you need me to do this?"

"Because Claire and I interfere with the signal," Damon answered vaguely as he silenced the compass and closed it.

Caroline, who was annoyed by his evasiveness and indifference towards her, sighed, "Can I go now? This has blown, like, _half _of my day."

"Oh my God," Claire breathed out in amazement. Damon looked at her, confused. "It's like a human, teenage version of _me_. I can just _smell _the hatred for you."

Damon gave Claire a childish glance before turning back to Caroline and pouring his eyes into hers, "Leave. Get in your car. Go home. Forget I asked you to do this."

Caroline took a moment, but then straightened. "Okay," she said cheerfully, giving him a girlish shrug. "Bye now."

"Bye," Damon returned and looked back at Claire. "Really? _Caroline Forbes _reminds you of yourself? Please."

"Well, not with the whole preppy…teenage girl thing," Claire admitted, shrugging, "but yeah. Too bad Stefan wants to leave this place," she mumbled.

"I thought you hated Mystic Falls."

"I do," Claire returned. "_Especially _with you in it. It's just…there's something about coming home after such a long time. It's refreshing."

Damon sighed. "Well, I for one, can't wait to get the hell out of here," he mumbled to himself before turning to her on the staircase. "Wait here just in case," he ordered.

Without waiting for her response, Damon walked up the rest of the stairs, pulled open the door, and shut it as quickly as he opened it. Claire thought about going inside with him, but he was probably right. If she went inside and something happened, both of them would be screwed. So, she waited outside, and that's when she heard the first sign of trouble.

The sound of the bullets being fired made her cringe, but she wasn't stupid enough to pull open the door and walk into the lion's den. When she heard Damon's distinct cry, she knew that there was something wrong. Her blonde hair whipped in the wind as she desperately looked around for another entrance near her. Seeing none, she jogged off of the staircase and briskly walked to the other side of the building, all while hearing the conversation inside. Another bullet fired, and Damon screamed again. It was when the conversation between the mad man shooting Damon continued when she finally found a door that led inside through the back way.

"_How should I know?" _she heard inside—the voice of an angry, newborn vampire. _"The last thing I remember is I'm about to stake your brother, and then you grabbed me. That's it!" _Slowly, Claire broke the lock on the door, making sure it was silent enough for the newborn vampire to not hear. Swiftly, she entered the abandoned warehouse, complete with spider-webs and unwanted rodents.

"Somebody buried me," the mad vampire continued. She could see this vampire and Damon now—Damon was on the floor, picking out the wooden bullets, and the vampire was crouched beside him.

"It happens," Damon breathed out before pulling out another bullet in his side. "Ow."

"You bit me. It had to be you."

"You have to have vampire blood in your system when you die," Damon snapped. "I didn't do that. Some other vampire found you. Gave you their blood." Damon groaned and slumped against the floor, weak.

"Who?"

"That's what I wanna know!"

"Dude, it's not like the Welcome Wagon was waiting with a Bundt Cake and a handbook!" The vampire shouted. "It's been a learn-as-you-go process!"

_Blah, blah, blah, here's your pity party, _Clarissa rolled her eyes as she crept around a shelf to get a better view of the situation. The vampire droned on and on about how he was turned, but he knew nothing of real pain. Real pain was being _forced _to feed against your will with no way out of it. He _obviously _had a choice, and he just chose the wrong one.

After the vampire was done feeding on his own bad situation, Damon suddenly put two and two together. The vampire had told him that he had been killing people left and right, a normal reaction to becoming a new vampire. "Wait a minute," Damon said, shaking his head as much as he could. "The cops only found one body."

"I left one," the vampire snarled. "I was tired. But I've been hiding the rest of the bodies." Without turning he pointed in a different direction. "They're right back there!"

Damon gave an annoyed expression. "You're kidding," he muttered as he looked in the direction.

"They're just piling up."

Claire turned to the direction this vampire pointed in as well, and she was repulsed at the sight. Sure, as a vampire, you kill people, but you had to be one sadistic, clueless _prick _to just pile on bodies in an abandoned warehouse. There were so many other ways to cover a vampire's tracks—hiding bodies one on top of another wasn't an option. Fires…animal attacks…even hiding the body somewhere with the bite mark covered up was an option! This vampire was going to get them all killed before they had time to leave Mystic Falls.

A silence passed over Damon and the vampire, and Clarissa watched as the vampire sighed and sat down next to Damon. She didn't make a move yet, because the vampire had the upper hand with his gun.

"Why am I so overly emotional?" the vampire asked Damon quietly. "All I can think about is my ex-girlfriend. I wanna…be with her and bite her and stuff."

_Please, _Clarissa scoffed in her thoughts.

Damon's tone surprised her when he answered. She thought he would've said something witty and snide, but instead, he shrugged. "Well, you probably love her. Anything you felt before will be magnified now." He became serious. "You're gonna have to learn how to control that."

"What about walking in the sun? I'm a morning person." Unconsciously, Claire let her thumb skim over her own daylight ring that Emily made for her against Katherine's wishes. Emily Bennett witnessed her whole transformation and, sickened by Katherine's ruthless act over a slight hint of jealousy, she protected Claire against the councilmen from suspecting she was a vampire. The ring was fit with a lapis lazuli stone and an antiquated bronze metal that wrapped around her finger. Damon and Stefan's rings were almost the same, but they had a silver metal and a family crest on theirs.

"You can walk in the sun," continued the vampire, "which, by the way, is pretty cool. Council'd never suspect you." Claire saw Damon twist his own ring so that it didn't show on his hand. "That's not in the journals."

"The journals?" Damon questioned.

"Yeah, the Founding Fathers…they passed down journals to their kids—come on, man. You gotta tell me. How can you walk around in the sun?"

Damon was hesitant. "Who turned you?"

"How do you walk in the sun?" the vampire snarled.

"Who turned you?"

The vampire was now getting agitated. "You know, I've been _really _nice so far. But I _will _kill you." He got up from his feet, and at this, Claire braced herself to make a move. It wouldn't so bad if Damon was hurt, but she wasn't just going to let him die at the hands of _this _oblivious asshole.

Damon snarled, "Then you'll never know." Damon rose himself, but the gun harboring wooden bullets was still pointed at him in silence. "You're not answering my question."

"You first!"

"Seems we're at a bit of an _impasse, _then, doesn't it?"

"I have things to do. People to kill. Guess I'll be needing a little head start." The bullets went off three times, and Damon collapsed onto the floor with a loud groan. Before the vampire was able to walk away, she flashed over to him and the sound made the vampire whip around sharply, but she had gained the upper hand. She hit the new vampire with her fist, and since the vampire was surprised, it took him a moment to bounce back, at which point, she had flashed and kicked him in the side of the leg. He fired off the bullets again, but they were nowhere near her. She was pretty sure that one of them actually hit Damon, according to his yelp.

Seeing that he had no chance against the blonde intruder, the new vampire fled faster than he had hoped for, and she stared after him with a sigh and looked down to see Damon right at her feet, his breathing quick and injured.

"You couldn't have jumped in any sooner?" Damon growled and rolled over. Claire shrugged.

"Well, I mean, it's not like he was going to _kill _you. We both know that." She paused. "Plus, it was kind of fun to watch."

* * *

Damon was pissed by the time he came home, but not at Claire, at Logan Fell, who was the vampire who shot him over six times with tiny wooden bullets. Damon had heard from Stefan that this Logan character was at the school, and immediately, het set out for revenge. Claire went with him and planned to end this vampire once and for all, because now _they _had the upper hand. Damon had grabbed a gun full of wooden bullets on his way out the door.

Stefan had told them where, exactly, Logan was, and they met up with Stefan on Elm Street, where a car was passing. It stopped at the stop sign oh-so-domestically, and at the opportunity, Stefan yanked Logan out of the car and threw him on the street. When Logan bounced back, Damon, who stood right beside his brother, held the gun up, pointed at Logan, and shot effortlessly, a sadistic smile on his face.

"Payback's a bitch, isn't it?"

Logan struggled on the floor, and Damon turned back to Stefan. "Get her out of here," he ordered, gesturing to Caroline, who had been in the car with Logan when they stopped them. She was knocked unconscious, a bloodstain on the window. Damon studied Logan on the concrete, but there was a sound inside of the door.

"_Logan, what happened? Logan!" _

Claire jumped at the sound, reaching inside the car to find an open cell phone on the driver's seat. She clearly recognized Sheriff Forbes's voice, and so she answered in the best-distressed voice she could muster. "S-Sheriff, it's Claire."

"_Claire? Where's Caroline?" _

"She's all right. Damon and I stopped the vampire. We're on Elm Street."

"_I'll be there soon," _she said quickly, and Claire hung up the phone as a result. She turned to find Damon smiling as she bounced over to the trunk and opened it, all the while keeping an eye on Logan. He found a tire iron and set to work with it.

"We're gonna try this _one _more time," he said lightly and swung the crowbar like it was a baseball bat. "Who turned you?"

Logan winced in pain, "I told you, I don't know."

Damon examined the tire iron in his hand. "This tire iron here could take your head clean off," he warned, but it was in the snide tone that Claire expected earlier. "Is that your final answer?" Damon braced to swing the tire iron at Logan's head.

"How can you side with them?"

"I don't side with anyone," Damon returned coldly. "You pissed me off, I want you dead."

"Just kill him, Damon," Claire sighed, crossing her arms. "The town won't be safe until we do."

"The town won't be safe until we figure out who turned him, Clarissa," Damon sung, turning back to her before returning to face Logan. With a pause, he continued, "Who turned you?"

"I don't know!" Logan insisted.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Oh, well. You're screwed." He braced to swing the tire iron again, but this time, Logan screamed.

"Wait! I do know!" He put his hand up to stop the iron from hitting him.

"You're lying."

Logan's voice was desperate now, "You think you're the only one who wants to get into that tomb underneath the old church?" Clarissa and Damon both stopped cold, and as she stiffened, Damon softened.

"If you are lying to me, I will _end _you," Damon growled.

"I am not lying," Logan pushed. "There's another way to break the spell. We can help you."

"Damon, don't you _dare_," Claire snapped, stepping forward to him and Logan. "Don't do it, Damon, don't—" The sound of sirens covered their ears, and she was interrupted by Logan.

"Meet me at the old church," he said desperately.

"Damon, _no_," Claire snapped, but Damon kept her away from Logan as he spoke.

"Take us down. Make it look real. Make it look real."

But, with the Sheriff in sight, Claire couldn't retaliate when Damon swiped the tire iron at Logan carelessly and Logan snapped back by pushing the both of them back against the vehicle he had arrived in. Sheriff Forbes rushed out of the car and up to them. "Damn it, Damon," Claire whispered to him as the pain in her back from the impact began to fade.

"Where is she?" Sheriff Forbes asked quickly.

"She's okay," Damon responded. "My brother's taken her home." Claire slumped against the car as Damon stood from his position. "I'm sorry Sheriff. I just wasn't strong enough," he complained, and Claire felt like screaming at him, but she couldn't in front of the human. Every part of her twitched with rage, and Damon was fully aware of this fact when they were released by the other cops that raided the vehicle for any sign of a clue.

When Claire turned around to find Damon, she knew that he had already left.

* * *

It was around half an hour after Logan had told Damon to meet him at the old church when Damon finally arrived in the cemetery, slowly making his way towards the church to hear Logan out. He kept the gun with the wooden bullets by his side just in case the bastard tried anything against him.

A ringing sound brought Damon out of his solitude, and he answered his phone with a single word, "Hello?"

"_I just wanted to say thank you,_" Liz said to Damon on the other side of the line. _"I don't know how you did it." _

"Uh…not following," Damon trailed off, puzzled.

"_We found Logan's body out by the old Fell warehouse. It's been disposed of. He was hoarding victims, innocent victims." _

"What?" But he wasn't surprised of that, he was more surprised of the death of the man who was supposed to help him bring Katherine back.

"_This town owes you so much. So do I." _With that, Sheriff Forbes hung up the phone, and Damon stood despaired on top of the old church.

"I thought you were done with this stupid quest to bring her back."

Damon turned to face Claire, who emerged out of two trees. He looked at her with eyes that were both angry and sorrowful.

"No," he returned. "I said you wouldn't have to worry about it because the crystal was destroyed. If there's another way to bring Katherine back, I'm going to do it." Without waiting for her to respond to his confession, Damon began to walk away from the forest, but Claire wasn't letting him off so easy.

"This woman ruined _both _of our lives, Damon!" Claire snapped, bringing him to a stop. "She not only turned _me _into a vampire, but she turned _you. _We both know that you miss being human."

Damon turned around and stared at her for what felt like an eternity, the reflection of the full moon shining her beautiful, long blonde hair and shining her grey eyes. He thought, for just a second, that maybe she was right.

Then again, she was always wrong according to him.

To shut her up, Damon flashed up to her and snapped her neck, unaffected by his actions, and caught her as her lifeless body began to fall into his arms. He pulled her up onto his body and walked out of the forest, her lightweight in his arms, and, for a moment, he thought about dropping her off at the boarding house.

Instead, he put her in the passenger seat of his car and felt around the pockets of her clothes, looking for leverage. He knew he always kept it on her…

_Bingo, _Damon thought to himself when he felt the material of the small photo in the inside pocket of her jacket. When he pulled it out, he could clearly make out the face of two teenage girls labeled: _Clarissa and Amelia, 1860_

With a vindictive smile, Damon slipped the picture into his pocket and shut the door of his car.

* * *

**Just so you all know, I have Driver's Ed for the next two weeks every day until 5:30 after school. Since I'm getting home so late and I most likely will have homework, there's a _slim _chance I'll be able to update during the week. And next weekend, I have a lot of stuff to do, but I will try my hardest to update 1 or 2 stories of mine. Just be warned that the next two weeks will be sort of radio-silent for me. Hopefully, I can carve some time to write. **

**But summer's coming up soon so just hold on a little longer! Actually, I'm the one who needs to hold on. A few more weeks of school...**

**Anyways, hope you liked the chapter. I'll update as soon as I find the time! Review if you can. **

**_Love, _  
**

**_BellaSalvatore1918_**

**_X_**


	3. Bloodlines

**Hey, guys. This is the longest chapter I've ever written. It took me over the last week to do. We see a slight glimpse into Claire and Damon's past in Mystic Falls, but this is only the beginning, believe it or not. Anyways, since it's such a long chapter, I hate doing long Author's Notes with it so...enjoy the chapter! Review at the end if you can!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Bloodlines**

**Mystic Falls, 1858**

_A burst of giggles sounded behind Marianne King as she and her two daughters stood in the town's apothecary, talking to the other townsmen. Marianne turned sharply and hushed her girls, and they both stiffened at the scold. _

"_Go outside, Clarissa," Marianne told her eldest daughter, who straightened as she'd been taught. "Take your sister with you." _

_The young, sixteen-year-old Clarissa King nodded, and with her hands respectfully folded by her stomach, she picked up her skirt and walked highly out of the apothecary with her sister by her side. They both stepped out into the late afternoon sunlight and listened as the birds chirped in the crisp air around them. _

"_Clarissa?" _

"_Yes, Amelia?" _

"_Why is Mother talking to Jonathan Gilbert?" Amelia asked, her voice sweet and childishly mature for an eleven-year-old. Clarissa turned to see her mother in deep conversation with John, but she didn't know what the conversation was about. Amelia was too busy distracting her with stories from school for her to pay attention. _

"_I'm not sure," Clarissa said simply, turning her head to her sister. Amelia was a small girl, petite and light, with blonde hair a lot more saturated than Clarissa's. But, despite their minor differences, the girls looked the same when it came to the small things—Marianne would dress them alike and braid their hair alike, things of that nature. In fact, they both wore a single-fashioned side braid that exampled their torso-length hair. "I'm sure Mother has her reasons."_

_The five-year age gap was a major difference, yes, but that never stopped Clarissa and Amelia from being the closest friends within the family. They shared everything together; sometimes to a point where it was too much. But, though Amelia was her friend at home, she had her own friend outside of her quarters. _

"_Look, Clarissa!" Amelia smiled, looking towards the direction of two boys heading their way. "It's the Salvatore boys!" _

_Amelia had developed a schoolgirl crush on Stefan, and Clarissa was almost positive Stefan felt the same way. Though, Amelia had her own friends, and she spent much of her time with them than with Stefan and Damon Salvatore. It was on occasion when she would join Clarissa, Damon, and Stefan's group, and though she kept this schoolgirl crush on Stefan, she had at least three other boys lined up right after him. Clarissa was very aware that her little sister would grow up to be quite the heartbreaker. _

"_Calm down, Amelia. There's nothing to get over-worked about," Clarissa warned her just as Damon and Stefan approached them, and their father went inside the apothecary. Clearing her throat, she said with a raised voice, "Besides. It _is _only Stefan and Damon." _

"Only_ Stefan and Damon?" Damon mused to her, coming up to their side. Clarissa turned to him now, paying no attention to her little sister and Damon's little brother smiling idiotically at each other. "You've wounded me, Miss King."_

"_I reckon you can handle the pain, Mister Salvatore," she retorted in a light tone. Damon, though nineteen now, still kept positions with his childhood best friend, as did his twelve-year-old brother. But Stefan's presence was merely a courtesy to the young boy who wanted to be so much like his brother that he practically clung to Damon's leg. _

_The eldest children stared at each other for a while, their eyes getting mixed up in the sea of colors that floated around them. Amusing smiles crossed each other's faces, and they—for just a moment—forgot their surroundings. _

"_Boys," a harsh voice snapped, making Damon flinch along with Stefan, who had been conversing politely with Amelia, who was still by Clarissa's side. Clarissa, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia all looked to see Giuseppe Salvatore standing firmly with his hands placed behind his back. "We must come back later. Mrs. King is with Mr. Gilbert. Say goodbye to her girls now, we'll see them for dinner," he barked._

_Giuseppe turned his back for a moment so that they could all give their temporary goodbyes. Stefan gave a shy bow and Amelia gave a similarly shy curtsey, but Damon and Clarissa weren't so reserved. Damon took Clarissa's hand in his and pressed his lips gently to it, a smile riding on his face. "Goodbye, Clarissa. Until later." _

"_Goodbye, Damon," she said in return, and watched as he released her hand and walked with his little brother behind his father, who led them back to the Salvatore plantation. _

* * *

Claire awoke with a start, hitting the confinements of her seatbelt as she gasped back to life in the front seat of Damon's moving vehicle. The vampire driving beside her did not flinch at her sudden movement, but rather glanced over at her and smiled. "Morning, sunshine."

"What the…" Claire trailed off, gasping for air as she slowly began to remember what happened to her. Damon waited, anxious, as she snapped her head at him and her eyes flashed with a certain rage. "You snapped my neck!" she roared.

"Easy," Damon hushed her, jerking his finger behind him. "We're not alone."

"What the hell are you—" Claire turned around to see that they were, indeed, _not _alone. In the backseat, with her head rolled to the side, was the Katherine look-alike—Elena. Claire widened her eyes as she looked back at Damon. "You _kidnapped _Stefan's girlfriend?"

"I didn't kidnap her," Damon defended himself. "She was in a car crash. Someone was going to take her. I _saved _her," he said pointedly.

"Well, aren't you a regular _hero_," the blonde vampire snapped through her teeth. She looked outside to the moving buildings around her and raised her eyebrows. "Where the hell are we?"

"Georgia," Damon sung happily, which caused Claire to turn her head sharply, once again.

"_Georgia_? You kidnapped me and Elena and you took us to _Georgia? _Who put a stupid chip in your brain?" Damon only smiled at her anger, but she only was enraged by it. Leaning over, Claire jerked the wheel. "Take us back!"

"Ah," Damon said, regaining control of the wheel as he slapped her fingers away. She growled at him, but he was only encouraged by the sound. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Damon reached into his pocket and pulled out the photograph that he had stolen from Claire's pocket while she was out. Claire widened her eyes as she saw what was on the photograph.

"You _asswipe!" _Claire shouted and reached over to grab the picture from his hand. Damon kept it out of her reach as he single-handedly restrained her, happy that _he'd _been the one to have more strength than her. But she wouldn't rest, and Damon nearly lost control of the wheel.

"Hey, hey, hey. This car's a classic. If you make me crash, I will personally drive a stake through your heart."

"You say that like you don't already expect to be _dead _by the time that happens!"

Damon sighed. "If you want the picture back, why don't you be a good little girl, _don't _complain, relax, and just enjoy the ride?" he suggested, turning to her and her scowling face. "When we're back home, I'll give you the photograph."

"You shouldn't have taken the photograph to begin with, Damon!"

"Yeah, well, you didn't leave me with much of a choice," Damon shrugged, shifting in his seat so that he could put the photo away.

Claire crossed her arms. "Yeah, because the first thing a person thinks of to do after temporarily killing someone is to throw them in their car, take their most prized possession, and drive to Georgia with their brother's girlfriend, right?" she said pointedly, which earned another shrug from Damon. "Does Stefan know about this?"

"Uh…seeing as I didn't call him and tell him of my _weekend plans, _I'd say no," Damon scoffed. "Seriously. Relax. It's just for the day…possibly the night. But tomorrow morning at most," he promised.

Claire stared at him incredulously, and then scoffed, slumping back in her seat with her arms still crossed. "You are _unbelievable. _I didn't think you could stoop to such _low _levels before now."

"Oh, come on," Damon laughed, smiling as he turned to her but still kept one eye out for the road. "This can be like our first romantic vacation together. Isn't that sweet?" Claire reached across and slapped his arm hard, earning Damon to entertain her with a light, "Ouch."

She frowned at him. "You're not funny," she warned, and turned her head so that she faced the open window—and from that point on, she remained silent, despite Damon's efforts.

Elena woke up a half an hour later, when they were making their way through the first couple towns in the state of Georgia. Unlike Claire, she didn't awake with a gasp, but rather a groan, and it didn't take her long, either, to figure out that they were in a moving vehicle going somewhere unknown. Damon looked at her through the rearview mirror.

"Morning!" he chirped.

Elena was startled by the voice, but when she realized that it was just Damon, she relaxed. "Where are we?" she asked immediately, feeling her head for the injury that Claire hadn't noticed until now.

Claire sighed. "_Georgia." _

"What?" Elena asked, straightening. "Georgia?" Damon nodded, and she began to panic. "No, no. No, we're not. Seriously, Damon, where are we?"

"Seriously, we're—we're in Georgia," he answered. Elena groaned. "How ya feeling?"

"I…I—"

"There's no broken bones," he assured her. "I checked."

Elena was silent for a moment, but then she began to remember. "My car. There was a man...I hit a man," she realized. "But then he got up and…who was that?"

Damon's voice became serious, "That's what I would like to know," he told her. Claire turned to Damon.

"She was really in a car accident?"

"Well, did you think I was _lying_?"

Claire nodded. "Yes, Damon. I thought you were lying. Because that's what you do, you _lie_." She turned around to face Elena. "Are you all right?"

Elena took a moment to hesitate, but nodded eventually. "I-I'm fine." She paused. "Claire, right?" Claire nodded, and Elena stared at her for a second more before remembering something. She began to pad around her pockets desperately. "Where's my phone?"

At the question, Claire reached into her own pocket and felt around for her cell phone, but found herself enraged when she came up empty. She turned to Damon and widened her eyes in another episode of blind rage, and he just shrugged. "Vacations aren't fun when people know where you are. Takes away from the surprise."

"Okay, Damon, we _really _need to go back," Elena said desperately, her fingers hooking on the side of his driver's seat. "Nobody knows where I am. Pull over," she ordered, but Damon just kept driving. Claire sighed when she realized Damon wouldn't give up. "I mean it, Damon, pull over!" Elena shouted, but he said nothing in return.

"Just stop the damn car, Damon," Claire sighed at him without turning to look over.

At her exasperation and Elena's constant pulling on his seat, Damon groaned. "Oh, you two were _so _much more fun when you both were unconscious!"

He did as asked—pulled his classic sports car over to the side of the road, where he and Claire both got out of the front seats and Claire helped Elena, who had slid over to her side of the car, get out of the backseat. Though it was a challenge for the human, Elena managed to get out of the car with as much ease as she could muster—but she was clearly sore. Claire helped her stay upright, to which Damon inquired, "Are you okay over there?"

Elena nodded and straightened from her dry heave. "I'm fine," she assured him, and was released from Claire's soft grasp. She looked at the blonde vampire, "You didn't see the crash?" she questioned, using her knowledge of the previous conversation to infer that Claire hadn't been taken by her own will, either.

Claire, as expected, shook her head. "Nope. Damon snapped my neck first and then, I guess, he saved you," she said, a certain distaste in her mouth. Elena nodded, feeling lightheaded, and then she began to pace.

"We _have _to go back," Elena said angrily, now speaking to Damon, who groaned.

"Oh, come on. Look, we've already come this far!" he teased, giving her a trademark smirk. Claire just gave him an incredulous glance, but Elena continued on her rant.

"Why are you doing this?" the look-alike questioned. "I can't be in Georgia! I-I wrecked my _car. _I have to go home! This is kidnapping," she accused.

"Tried that," Claire mumbled.

Damon sighed. "God, what is with the _theatrics _around here? You two are being _way _too melodramatic, don't you think?"

"You can't do this," Elena snapped. "I'm _not _going to Georgia."

"Oh, you're in Georgia," Damon retorted, now dropping his light tone. "Without your magic little necklace, I might add," he pointed out, which immediately brought Elena's hand up to her neck. "I could very easily make you…_agreeable_."

Claire turned to Damon, alarmed. "What was in the necklace?" He smirked, silent. "_Vervain_? Did you _take _the vervain necklace from her?"

"N-No," Elena stuttered, stopping Claire from accusing Damon of something she'd done. "I…I took it off. Back at the boarding house," she muttered.

Claire sighed. "Little tip—don't take off the necklace that protects you from being mind-controlled by the undead," she pointed to Elena, but it wasn't rude—it was gentler than anything she'd said all morning. Turning around, she pointed to Damon next and used no gentle words. "As for you, I will beat your ass to a _pulp _if you don't let me and this poor girl go home," she warned.

Damon shook his head. "Can't let you do that."

Claire gave him a sour smile. _"Watch _me." She turned to Elena. "I'll get us out of here, I promise. I'll go to the nearest gas station and call Stefan or something—"

Damon whistled. "Yoohoo," said the taunting vampire, earning Claire to give icy glares as she slowly turned around to see Damon holding the picture he had taken from her jacket, waving it as if it were a trophy. "I think you forgot about this, Clarissa."

Elena raised her eyebrows. "What is that?"

Claire ignored her question. "Give me _one _reason—just _one _reason!—not to rip out your heart and feed it to the squirrels that roam around here!" she shouted at him, and Damon gave a playful smirk, giving her his one reason. "Not good enough," she snarled, but before the conversation could escalate, there was a ringing in Damon's pocket.

Elena straightened, recognizing the ringtone that was so familiar to her, "That's my phone," she said slowly, and Damon just rolled his eyes before pulling it out of his pocket and reading the caller ID.

"Mm," Damon taunted. "It's your boyfriend," he sung. "I'll take it."

Claire straightened against the car that she had resulted to leaning on. Elena stiffened away from the phone, but Claire did no such thing. "Give me the phone, Damon," she held out her hand, but Damon pressed the button to answer the call, all while fighting Claire off.

"Elena's phone."

"_Where is she?" _Stefan snapped on the other side of the line. _"Why do you have her phone? Is she okay?" _

"Elena? She's right here. And, yes, she's fine."

"Damon, give me the phone." Claire fought against the vampire, but his strength was to not be messed with. As Damon fed off of the vein as often as he could, it was Claire's intention to survive on blood bags like a humane vampire. "Damon…give…me…the…_phone_!"

"_Is that Claire?" _Stefan asked, confused. _"Why is she with you?" _

"Oh, she wanted to come along for the joy ride," Damon said, amused with a smile on her face. "We both know how much she _loves_ me."

"_Where are you? Let me speak to Claire." _

Damon, seeing Claire open her mouth, kept the phone between his head and shoulder while he took his two hands and positioned the tips of his fingers at the top of Claire's photograph, and with a slight snap, he tore the outer edge of the frame. Claire winced, and instantly, she shut up. Satisfied, Damon smiled and grabbed the phone again with his hand.

"No can do, brother. I'd be happy to put you on the phone with Elena, though, if you'd like."

Stefan took a moment, but finally answered, _"Put her on." _

Damon, cautious around Claire, held out the phone to Elena, who shook her head and shied away. With a sigh, he put the phone back on his ear. "Yeah…I don't think she wants to talk to you right now."

"_Damon, I swear to God, if you touch her—_"

"You have a good day," Damon cut him off. "Mmhmm. Bye now." With that, Damon hung up the phone and slipped it into his pocket. He then turned to Claire. "Are we clear on what's to happen if you try and get in contact with my brother?"

Claire snarled, "Crystal."

While Claire paced by the car, Elena and Damon talked by the hood of it. Elena tried to convince Damon for all he was worth to turn back, but he wouldn't budge. Eventually, Claire realized that Elena gave in, and she could hear the slight end of their conversation.

"Get in the car," Damon said abrasively. "Come on."

He walked to the driver's seat, and Claire walked up to Elena, who sighed. "You think I can trust him?" Elena asked, her voice low.

Claire laughed bitterly. "Not a chance in hell," she said lightly, and Elena sighed once more before turning around and getting into the car that Damon helped her in. When he shut the door, he saw Claire standing by the hood, her arms crossed and her expression showing nothing but anger. With an agonizing sigh, he walked over to her.

"I don't suppose I can convince you to enjoy this trip, can I?" Damon asked, walking over to her, making sure he was away from the car and out of Elena's hearing range.

Claire straightened as he approached her. "Why'd you have to take the picture, Damon? Why'd you even have to snap my neck? Have you ever thought of _asking _for a change?"

"Would you have come with me if I asked?"

"Hell no!"

"That's my point!" Damon groaned, but it was almost a whine. She waited as he began, "Claire, you are so _uptight _and moody and—"

"What the _hell _did you just call me?"

"Uptight and moody?" Damon reiterated, not bothering to dress it up for her. She scoffed and shook her head. "Come on. Elena's already on board and…I mean, she's like _twice _as uptight as you are."

Claire bit her jaw and turned back to him. "I'm not uptight. You just make me angry, Salvatore."

"That's not the _only _thing I make you," Damon taunted, a growing smirk on his face. Despite her best efforts, Claire was unable to keep the smile off of hers, but she was able to control herself before it got out of control. She covered her amusement up with a nod.

"You've got until tomorrow morning to get us back home," she agreed, compromising. "And, for Stefan's sake, I'm adding this in—if I see you look into Elena's eyes with a wrong intention, you and I will have some _serious_ problems to deal with."

Damon shrugged. "We already have serious problems, sugar. We deal with them, too." The first comment, merely a tease, was overridden by the second one, which was an innuendo that Claire—if she hadn't had her neck snapped within the span of twenty-four hours—didn't appreciate.

She laughed bitterly. "If you think that this little _arrangement _we have going on is going to _continue _after a stunt like this…?" Again, she laughed, and she took a step forward so that she was inches away from him. The strong scent of her filled Damon's nostrils, but he didn't show any sign of liking it. "You are _seriously _mistaken," she whispered before her smile went blank, she brushed past him, and—with an icy glare again—climbed into the car.

* * *

"So where's my car?" Elena questioned with a sigh as she let her gaze drift out of the backseat window. Claire stared with annoyance at Damon's annoying trait of drumming his fingertips against the steering wheel while Damon answered.

"Ah, I pulled it off to the side of the road. I don't think anyone will bother it."

What about that man in the road?" she interrogated further. A silence passed before she spoke, "Was he a…?"

"From what I could tell…yeah."

"And you didn't know him?"

"If I've never met him, I wouldn't know him." As he said the words, Claire impulsively surged forward and placed her hand on Damon's constant fingers, flattening them against the wheel. He jolted at the touch for a moment, but then his head turned to the side where she was smiling at him sourly. Figuring that he received her hint, Claire took her hand off of his and moved back into her seat, where she leaned against the window and looked out at the fast-moving world. Damon continued, "I mean, it's not like we all hang out together at the vamp bar and grill."

Elena was silent, as if pondering the thought, and then she leaned forward so she would get a better view of the two passengers as she spoke, "So…I'm a little confused. Are you two, like—?"

"Elena, if you are about to say the word I think you're going to say, I'm going to have to stop you right there," Claire said, as calmly as she could, while turning back around to see Elena. She relaxed in her seat as Elena slid forward and peered through the two front seats.

"So…if you two are not…" she trailed off, but didn't say the word. Damon and Claire just kept their eyes peeled to the road. "I'm not going to lie, I'm a little afraid to ask, but are you…_friends_? It seems like you two do a lot of…heated arguing."

"We hate each other," said the two vampires in unison, which caused them to glance at each other from across. Elena just thought to herself for a moment while Damon spoke.

"We used to be friends," he admitted.

Claire shook her head. "We're not anymore."

"Oh…" Elena trailed off, still confused. Damon smirked to himself.

"But, if you want a real explanation, why don't you ask Claire over here about her infatuation with me," he challenged, raising an eyebrow smugly. Claire didn't need to see him to start laughing against the hand she leant against, and she didn't even turn while she responded.

"If that's how we're going to play it, why don't you just ask Damon why he stares at my ass all the time."

Damon shrugged. "It's a nice ass."

Claire scoffed. "_You're _an ass."

Damon looked over at her, capturing her attention, "Yes, and a _nice _one," he taunted, the pun fully intended. Claire, though she laughed at the joke, rolled her eyes and moved her head to the side to look out of the window again. Damon stared at the open road and pressed his foot on the accelerator.

"So," Elena started, "if you were friends once, what happened? There must've been a reason why—"

"Oh, there was a reason why," Damon cut her off as he slowly pulled up to a side road, getting off of the highway. "But it's a _long _story. And we're already here." He pulled to a stop in front of a building clearly labeled _Bree's Bar. _

"Where are we?" Elena asked, dropping all conversation of Claire and Damon's past when she saw the sign. "You brought us to a _bar_?"

Damon didn't answer as he opened his door, stepped outside, and helped Elena out of his convertible. Elena continued in the same condescending tone, "Damon, I'm not old enough. They're not going to let me in."

Damon didn't seem bothered by the slight problem. "Sure they will," he said simply, clapping his hands together as he walked away and guided Elena with him. "Come on, Claire, you're slowing us down!"

Claire, though contempt upon the fact that the place he'd brought her to had alcohol so she wouldn't be _completely _miserable, slammed the door of Damon's car and followed him exhaustedly, already hating the fact that he was controlling her with just the possession of a picture.

The three walked into the bar, Damon first, Claire and Elena behind him, and Damon seemed like he had done this on purpose—that he went to this bar for a reason. Suspicious, Claire and Elena both watched as Damon rubbed his hands together and caught sight of the bartender standing behind the counter.

"No," the woman gasped, either excited or mortified. "No, it can't be! _Damon_."

"Who's she?" Elena whispered to Claire, who just shrugged as she watched with a clueless nature that resembled that of Elena's. The bartender swung herself around the counter, sliding across a clear spot, before swinging her legs off and making her way over to the leather-covered vampire who stood just a few inches from Claire and Elena.

The woman sighed, "My honey pie," she said, almost nostalgic. The woman was tall—_real _tall. She towered over Damon, and with this, it made it easy for her to reach forward and latch her lips onto the vampire's, earning Elena to widen her eyes and a feeling of uneasiness overcome Claire, who just sighed and crossed her arms to protect from conveying her emotions. Damon and the woman pulled away for a _brief _second, and then he moaned slightly and brought his lips back to hers. Claire caught sight of Elena's shocked expression, and with a glance to her and a glance back to the interlocked people before them, she sighed.

"Looks like we've been kidnapped so Damon can act on a booty-call," Claire said, a slight edge to her tone. Damon pulled away at this and stared back at her, his lips swollen but nevertheless pulled back into a smile. She looked at the woman. "I think I'm going to need a drink for this."

* * *

"Listen up, everybody!" Bree, as Elena and Claire had collected from formalities, shouted while holding up a bottle of alcohol and turning around to the shot glasses lined up in a row in front of her. "Here's to the man that broke my heart, crushed my soul, destroyed my life, and ruined any and all chances of happiness." Each time she listed things; she poured the alcohol into the shot glass and distributed them—one to her, one to Claire, one to Elena, and one to Damon. Damon smiled, enjoying his dedication. "Drink up!" she toasted, tipping the glass back to drain her shot.

Damon did the same, and Claire followed him, but Elena—who sat next to Claire—held her glass in her hand. Claire, seeing Elena didn't drink her shot and didn't plan on it, took the alcohol out of the girl's hand without any protests from Elena, and drank it for her. First of all, it was a sin to waste alcohol. Second of all, they didn't want to be rude.

When Claire finished both shots, she returned to ground zero and laughed at Damon. "That's like a _quadfecta_!" she accused him.

"Is a quadfecta even a thing?" Elena asked, genuinely curious. Claire looked at her and nodded.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." She looked over at Bree. "You think you can give me another one? Two, maybe?" She looked over at Damon now. "I think I'll try for my own quadfecta."

"You know, you might wanna slow down on the drinks, there, Claire. Can't hate me when you're drunk," he sung.

Claire laughed as she took the drink that Bree poured her. "I can hate you in _any _state, Damon," she said, finding the situation funny as she downed the other shot.

Bree began to fill her glass again when it was on the bar counter as she questioned the vampire, "So how'd he rope you in?"

Claire laughed. "Yeah…_no_." It was all she needed to say before she grabbed the drink and drained her forth shot. Bree turned to Elena.

"And you?"

"Oh, I'm not roped. I'm dating his—"

"Honey, if you're not roped, you're whipped," Bree interrupted, taking advantage of Elena's human innocence. She smiled. "Either way, just enjoy the ride."

Elena didn't argue. "Okay," she agreed and moved on quickly. "So, how did you two meet?"

Bree chuckled, as if remembering a thought. "College," she sung. Elena looked over at Damon, completely astounded.

"_You _went to college?" she asked in disbelief.

Damon, with his head against his hand, responded, "I've been on a college campus, _yes_." He drained his own shot that Bree poured for him as the bartender launched into the story.

"About twenty years ago, when I was a _sweet, _young freshman, I met this _beautiful _man, and I fell in love," she said with a certain degrading tone to her voice that mocked both her _and _Damon.

Claire snorted. "Are you sure we're thinking about the same guy? Because I get more of a Tom Cruise image than"—Claire jerked her head at Damon—"_that _image."

Bree snickered, "Believe it or not, it's true. And when he told me about his little secret…made me love him even more." She shrugged. "Because, see, I had a little secret of my own that, uh, I was _dying _to share with somebody."

Damon leaned over to whisper indiscreetly to both Claire and Elena, "She's a _witch_."

"Changed my world, you know."

"I _rocked _your world," smirked Damon, which caused a ripple of laughter to escape from Bree's lips.

Then, she turned serious, and faced both Elena and Claire. "He is good in the sack, isn't he?" Neither girl responded. Bree continued before they could even _think _about it. "But, mostly, he's just a…Walkaway-Joe." To this, she knocked back another shot before slamming it down and speaking. "So, what is it that you want?"

Damon said nothing, because he wouldn't dare in front of Claire or Elena. Instead, he stayed silent and shrugged, and merely observed while Claire studied him, trying to decode his ways.

It didn't take her long.

* * *

_Clarissa braced herself for the impact of the tightly drawn strings on her back as her mother almost violently pulled them against her, tightening and tightening her core so that she would look her best for the evening. The Salvatores and the Kings were having dinner at the King residence. The two families had always been close, which was why Damon, Clarissa, Stefan, and Amelia were such good friends. They weren't forced to be together—they learned to be friends on their own._

"_You must be on your best behavior with Damon Salvatore tonight," her mother echoed the words she'd been spewing all day. "You never know when he might want to increase things between you." _

"_Mother," Clarissa tried for what seemed like the trillionth time, "Damon and I are great friends. We do not think like that when it comes to each other." _

_Truth of the matter was, what she spoke was true—at least, that's how she thought he felt. Clarissa was worried that if she ever tried something with him, they would never recover. Since she'd grown the age where she could fully understand the concept of love, she'd been convinced that she had fallen for Damon Salvatore—fallen hard. Of course, at an early age, she thought that this concept of love was something to be thrown around carelessly, but as time progressed, she became more and more aware of her feelings. But the older she grew, the more cautious she'd become, and she never tried anything out of that sheer fear of becoming detached with him. Damon, a nineteen-year-old man who looked as if he'd been perfectly shaped, would certainly be interested in other women. Her feelings aside, she did not want to be a conquest. She wasn't sure she would be, just the fear alone was enough to hold her back. _

_Her mother, though…her mother was _convinced _that Damon Salvatore was just as in love with her as she was with him. Her father, too. Actually, the entire town was convinced that Damon Salvatore and Clarissa King were destined to be with each other since the beginning of time, itself. The three-year age difference did not matter to them all. All that mattered was the simple way of alliances down in the South._

"_Listen to me," her mother said, oddly cold, as she looked in the mirror and tightened the strings of Clarissa's corset again, making her stiffen harder. "You and Damon will be married one way or another. Whether it be by the decision of your fathers or by decision of your own, it will happen one day." _

_Clarissa's mother finished tying her corset, which earned the girl to turn around and face her small, lovely mother. "Are you saying that Father will _make _me marry him, even if I don't want it?" she asked, her voice small. _

_Marianne's face softened and she placed her hand on her daughter's cheek. "I would fall in love with him before then, Clarissa. There isn't much time left." _

"_Much time for what?" she asked, her voice wavering. Marianne's smile twitched in the slightest. _

"_My darling girl," she cooed, her fingers stroking the young girl's face, "Men want young wives—beautiful wives. Your time will run out soon enough. Death is inevitable, and it is mortifying. When a woman grows old, her beauty degrades. It's not long before that happens for you. Your father and I already have someone in mind for your sister."_

"_Amelia?" Clarissa repeated. "Why, who on Earth could it—" she stopped cold in the sentence when she realized, putting two and two together. "Do you mean…do you mean to tell me that Jonathan Gilbert's son—?"_

"_Let's hope for the best," her mother interrupted, giving Clarissa her warmest smile. "If Amelia can find her own husband, we won't be forced with the decision. You still have some time left, yourself, if you'd prefer that option," she promised. _

_Clarissa was silent. "How long, exactly?" she asked, her voice soft. _

_Marianne was hesitant, but eventually, she sighed. "You should have until your twentieth birthday, dear." _

* * *

After Damon was done talking with Bree about Katherine, which Claire obviously overheard and drowned her anger in the high consumption of alcohol, the vampire walked up behind Claire so that they were inches away from each other. "I'm guessing you're pissed."

"Pissed?" she repeated, taking a swig out of the bottle Bree had kindly let her drink out of. "No. Hitler was pissed Damon, but _me_? Oh…" she chuckled sourly. "Oh, you don't even know where it _begins_!"

"Claire," Damon said, trying to make her understand. "If I get Katherine out of that tomb, I will keep her as _far _away from you as possible. I know what it means to you for me to want to bring her back. I may _hate _you, but I'm not a _dick_." She raised an eyebrow challengingly. "Okay, I'm not a _complete _dick," he amended.

She wanted to say something, but instead, she didn't want to find the words. Leaving the bottle of alcohol on the counter, without a word, she turned out of her chair, grabbed the jacket she had shredded while Damon talked to Bree, and left briskly out into the cold air. Claire didn't know what to do—to run away, to stay, it was painful either way. She would lose the only picture she had of her younger sister if she ran away, but if she stayed, Damon would drive her into a hard drive that she was not equipped to handle. Never before had they spent so much time together other than when they were human friends.

But something pulled her out of her own internal dilemma—it was Elena.

"How am I connected to Katherine, Stefan?" Elena demanded.

"_I honestly don't know." _

"And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"_It's the truth. I…listen—_" Elena angrily hung up the phone on her boyfriend, and Claire sighed. Now she realized why Elena hadn't been so happy-go-lucky for the past few hours.

Claire flashed up to Elena, accidentally startling her when the human turned around to face her. Claire held up her hands in defense. "Sorry. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I just…I overheard," she said, gesturing to the phone. Elena looked down at it and sighed.

"Yeah, well, it's just—" She paused and looked up at Claire, her eyes signaling her coming to the realization. "You knew, too, didn't you?"

"To be fair, I've only really known about you for a day now," Claire said, slightly shrugging. "But, yes, I know that you look like Katherine. Trust me…it's…" She blew out a long breath of air. "It's a headache."

"Do we look _that _much alike?" Elena asked, her voice a soft whisper. Claire gave a sorrowful, yet agreeing smile. "God, I just…why didn't Stefan _tell _me? Why did he have to lie?"

"I think he just didn't want you to know about her," Claire tried to make it better, defending Stefan but trying to maintain a good relationship with Elena as well. "If you knew, then…well, you would be more aware of it and you'd start questioning things. I mean, think about it. How would you feel if you were madly in love with someone before Stefan who looks _exactly _like him?" Elena silenced, taking her point. "You wouldn't want him to know, would you? Because you wouldn't want him to worry that you were only pursuing him because of his looks."

Elena, though silenced, found the will to sigh and angrily brush a strand of hair behind her ear. "He should've told me."

Claire shrugged. "Yeah, in all fairness, he should've told you," she admitted. "But there's only so much you can do about it now." Elena said nothing in return, signalizing that she didn't want to talk about it. At this signal, Clarissa began, "Go on back. I'll meet you inside, okay?"

Elena, though hesitant, nodded, and she made her way back into the bar. Claire let out a deep sigh. When did she become the mediator between all of this? Defending Katherine's look-alike? What was _possessing _her?

She turned around to meet Elena inside, realizing that—despite her arguments that never ended with Damon—Elena needed her mediation just as much as she desperately needed a drink. But, when turned, Damon, who stood right in her way, immediately stopped her.

"Everything okay?" he questioned, his expression serious and concerned.

Claire couldn't make out his intention of this, but she crossed her arms and relaxed her body. "Do me a favor and _don't _pretend to care about me or my feelings. We both know that all you want is Katherine back and you don't care how you get it."

"You think that I would be so cruel and let Katherine do whatever the hell she wants with you after she comes out? She'd kill you. That was her intention all along."

"Yeah, it was. But, hey, look at it this way!" Claire's voice was harsh and stern and made Damon flinch. "You'll finally be rid of one problem you've been dying to fix since eighteen sixty-four!"

This was the time when Damon immediately shut up, and his jaw locked in its place. "Don't you act like I never gave a damn about you," he snarled, but it was in a softer tone than a darker one. She flinched and straightened at his demeanor. "Because you _know _I did, Clarissa. You _know _it. And you were the one who screwed it up."

Claire was silent; completely astounded that he would bring that up again. She straightened now, trying to contain her anger and her sadness all in one. "I don't want to talk about this anymore," she said, uncrossing her arms and avoiding Damon's gaze as she brushed past him, bumping his shoulder, and he watched as she walked back up to the bar.

* * *

_Laughter filled the King mansion as Giuseppe Salvatore boomed from the seat next to Edward King, who was finishing up a story of his as regards to work. Clarissa, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia sat further down the table as Marianne sat beside her husband. The children's conversation consisted of no words but rather of slurping when it came to their means. Stefan and Amelia tried hard, as kids, to stay as sophisticated as their elder siblings, who both sat straight at the table and ate with a certain caliber that they were taught. The night was progressing fast, and soon, Amelia and Stefan had broken through their silence and were speaking to each other. It was Clarissa and Damon who stayed silent, the two of them well aware of what this dinner was supposed to cause—but they didn't _dare _say it aloud._

"_Clarissa," Edward said briskly, earning his daughter's attention. "Why don't you and Mr. Salvatore take some time to yourselves, hmm? You two may be excused," he promised, but his intentions were what Clarissa expected the entire night. _

_But, obeying her father's wishes, she and Damon were forced to be by themselves. Though the thought had settled in the back of their minds the entire dinner, they acted like everything was normal as they made their way upstairs per request of her father. It wasn't a new thing—Damon had been in her house before. In her stairwell, in her living room, in her foyer—but never in her chambers. That's why it was surprising to him when she opened the door and stepped inside, giving him a glance of the inside furnishing. He made a joke on his way towards the door, but when she didn't laugh, he didn't have enough time to process it when he was staring into her revealed bedroom._

"_Come in," she said softly. "It's all right, I…I would just rather be in here instead of downstairs." _

_Damon, though hesitant, eventually stepped across the threshold into her room, and that's when he continued his earlier thought. "Was my humor not appealing to you?" he asked, quite concerned if there was something wrong. _

_Clarissa let out as much of a breath as she could. "N-No, it's just…my mother's corset tying this afternoon prevents me from…any excessive air consumption." She wanted to laugh, but she was telling the whole truth—the corset felt like a dagger impaling her heart each time she took a breath. It was quite wrong to admit your corset troubles to a male guest, but she couldn't help herself. Damon was her best friend, and though it was uncomfortable, she wanted to be honest. _

"_Here," Damon said, stepping forward. "Allow me." _

_She wanted to protest, but he was already at her corset strings before she was able to stop him. His fingers tried to pull the corset strings loose so she could breathe again, but his hands on her made her lose even more breath than she did before. He saw her shield her eyes from the mirror, and she was quite aware that he was staring at her through the reflective device. Finally, Damon felt Clarissa let out a breath, and he backed away from her corset. "Better?" he asked. _

_She didn't respond. Instead, she turned around to face him, the proximity between them completely overwhelming. Their breaths were short—both of them breathed with caution, until Damon spoke._

"_I would like to have more time with you, Clarissa. It feels like it has been an eternity since we've last seen each other."_

"_A complete moon cycle," she corrected him. "But I understand, Damon. You have been engaged with your father…I have been engaged with my sister…" _

"_That should be no reason to drift apart," Damon retorted. "You are my best friend. I would not like that to change."_

"_Neither would I," she agreed, and things went silent for the longest time until she found the will to speak, changing the topic. "I learned something today." _

"_What would that be?" _

"_That I will die," she said, her voice strained. Damon waited for her to continue. "My mother says that I will slowly grow old…that I will become an item that no one wants. That I will no longer be beautiful one day." The concept was sorrowing, but it was reality. She wasn't quite aware that one day, she'd lose her beauty. No one prepared a young girl for that._

"_You, my Clarissa, will always be beautiful to me," Damon said kindly, reaching out so his hand brushed across her face. She felt the warmth on her cheek, and seeing her relax into it, Damon didn't move his hand._

"_You believe that?" _

"_I much more than _believe _it," Damon taunted with a smile. "I am positive of it." _

_She was about ready to tell him that they should rejoin everyone downstairs, seeing as their silence filled the air around them. But, everything changed in those few seconds of silence. Damon's eyes poured into hers no more than it had ever before, and she saw it as normal. He, however, saw it as a sign—he saw it as a beacon that this, right then and right there, was the time to finally change things. _

_A life-altering decision took a second to think about and a second to execute. Within the passing moment, Damon took the hand on her cheek and moved it so that it would tilt her head up to his and he leaned down, pressing a kiss to her soft-shaped lips that fit so perfectly in his. The moment their lips touched, he knew it had been the right thing to do, and a feeling of completion overwhelmed the nineteen-year-old. Clarissa, however, was shocked to begin with, but over the next growing second, she let her lips move with his to meet his light, perfect kissing. _

_Had she ever imagined of kissing Damon Salvatore, her best friend? Yes. Had she ever acted on it? No. So, when she began to feel him change—to become more urgent with his kisses and to feel him pressure her with a sweetness that only he could ever match, she began to panic, which caused her lips to fall slack to his touch. He drove their kiss, pulling her neck closer and trying to make their first kiss both beautiful and invigorating at the same time. She was clouded and…and quite lost to the scent of him and the way he felt against her. Their bodies were crushed together, chest-to-chest, perfectly fitting as one single form. _

_This was the way it was supposed to be. _

_And this was what scared Clarissa King more than anything in the entire world. _

_It wasn't the fear of losing Damon because he didn't return her feelings. It wasn't the fear of growing old and losing her beauty. It wasn't the fear of dying. __It was the fear that she had found someone to love that forced her to stumble out of the kiss, taking Damon by surprise. He savored the sight of her—her raw lips, her red-hot face, and her shocked form. But he could see, very clearly, as she traced her cool fingers against her lips, that she was going to do something she'd regret._

"_Why?" she whispered. "Why did you have to kiss me?" _

"_You know why," Damon said softly, determined to make her realize, once and for all, that she was the woman he wanted to marry. "I have wanted to do that ever since I realized that I was in love with you." _

"_Damon," she almost whined, and tears began to well in her eyes and push over onto her face. He was confused—baffled—as to why she would cry. "I won't be this beautiful forever."_

"_You don't have to be, darling," Damon said, taking a step forward. She shook her head, her tears staining her cheeks. His fingers brushed the tears off as he spoke, "I love you, for more than just your beauty. _You _are beautiful, Clarissa." She pushed out more tears now, and his fingers tried to brush away her hair, but she cried even more at that. "Won't you tell me what's wrong?" _

_She didn't answer._

"_Tell me what's wrong." No answer. "Clarissa, please—"_

"_Please leave, Damon." She cried harder now. "Please, Damon, I-I would like you to leave." _

_There was one problem and one problem that Clarissa King would never be able to rid. Sure, she could find some will to control her anger and other emotions. Sure, she wasn't the most perfect person in the world. But this one problem that Clarissa King could not rid herself of was present even as a child ever since her Grandfather died. Her Grandfather, the meanest person of all in Mystic Falls, had warmed up to her, and she warmed up to him. Right in the middle of their routine time during the day, he had died, sitting right beside of her, and she was never able to rid herself of the guilt that haunted her. Everyone who found his or her way to love her would somehow end up wronged. Her father, her mother, and her sister…they were always given penalty after showing her affection. Over time, it became a paranoia of hers. _

_It was as if she wasn't meant to be loved. _

_And she wouldn't let Damon fall into that trap. _

_She watched as Damon, heartbroken, stood for a moment, his hands still on her face, tracing over her hot tears. But he finally was able to remove himself, and she felt her own heart break as he walked out of her door. Clarissa felt like she would break, but something else did it for her. _

_Rushing up to her bedroom door, she—through her tearful eyes—saw the hallway vase, the priceless vase, cracked in pieces, left in Damon's wake. Only, he was nowhere to be found, and she was right beside the vase when her parents had rushed upstairs to examine the commotion. _

* * *

The thing about Damon was that he was _so _good at keeping his inner emotions hidden that his outer emotions displayed no sign of how bad he felt. Elena, Claire, and Damon all sat at the bar, their positions changed now. Claire and Damon sat father away from each other and Elena sat in the middle of them both, completely oblivious to the conflict that surrounded her.

"Let's…just say that I'm descended from Katherine…does that make me part vampire?" she asked the vampires sitting on either side of her.

Claire shook her head and answered the question first. "Vampires can't procreate."

Damon hummed. "But we love to try," he countered, his lips stretching into a smile. Claire scoffed at him and Elena, who was just plain annoyed by his comment, turned back to her.

"Don't listen to him. Look, if you're descended from Katherine, which you _probably _are, that means that she had to have had a child _before _she was turned."

"Did Stefan think that he could _use _me to…replace her?" she asked, a certain bitterness in her tone.

"It's kinda creepy if you ask me," Damon said, as if he wasn't drawn to Elena for the same reason. Claire just rolled her eyes and pulled Elena's attention back to her.

"No, Elena, you really need to _stop _even…_asking _Damon for advice," she sighed desperately, shaking her head. "I've seen Stefan with a lot of women. And when I say _lot _of women, I say a _lot _of women…" Claire trailed off, seeing Elena's distaste. "Anyway, the point is, Stefan doesn't care about those things—what a person looks like. He just cares about the person." She paused and ate her food before continuing. "Unlike the person to your left."

"This coming from the girl who voted for JFK _simply _because you wanted to screw with him," Damon countered.

"I didn't want to screw _with _him," Claire retorted. "I just wanted to screw _him. _There's a difference."

"Okay, I just…I need to know," Elena said, throwing her pickle down on her plate. "What _happened _to you guys? You said you were friends so…obviously _something _had to have happened."

Both Claire and Damon looked at each other, debating whether or not to tell Elena what they told Stefan. They both knew the truth, and here they had a chance to tell it. Either one of them could make the first move, but it was eventually Damon who told the story.

"I broke a vase in her house," he said, reiterating the stretched truth he'd told ten billion times to his brother over the years. "Her parents thought she did it and they were angry. She broke my father's favorite drinking glass as retaliation." At the end, he shrugged and acted like it was nothing, but really, it was everything.

There was a secret understanding between the both of them—the thought would be locked away in their memory and never touched until the time was right. The real reason Damon and Clarissa had grown estranged _had _been because of the vase, but they would've easily been able to get over that. The seconds before, though…those were permanently branded into their memories.

"This was all…over a _vase _and a _drinking glass_?" Elena asked, turning her head to Claire for confirmation, who nodded. "That's ridiculous! It was over a hundred years ago! Just let it go."

"It's hard to forget a memory like that," Claire told her, shrugging. "Besides, it's not like we're killing each other. Yet," she added.

Elena opened her mouth to speak, but Damon took the words from her. "You don't like pickles?" he questioned, changing the topic. "What's wrong with you?"

The human teenager watched as Damon brought the pickle to his mouth that Elena had put aside and he chomped on it, relishing in the taste. Elena, surprised, asked, "How can you even eat if…technically you're supposed to be…"

"Dead?" Damon finished for her, an amused tone in his voice. "It's not such a bad word. As long as I keep a healthy diet of…_blood_ in my system, my body functions pretty normally." He smiled as he chomped down the rest of the pickle, chewing it childishly. Elena laughed to herself, but then, Bree came over to them, giving Damon and Claire their beers. Elena thought to herself for a moment as both vampires accepted the alcohol, and then, between them, she rose her head high and spoke.

"I'll have one, too."

Damon and Claire watched as Bree handed Elena a beer, too, and they all had matching glasses in their hands. With one no-word toast, they all drank the first sip of their beer, Elena giving a distasteful look as the first sip went down.

It was around the second beer when Elena started to get a little drunk, since she'd gone so long without alcohol that her tolerance worsened. Damon had been keeping her busy, but he couldn't keep his eyes off of Claire, who just sat in her seat, hating him and the world around her. While Elena was preoccupying herself in another area around the bar, Damon slid over to Claire, who was desperately wishing that she could go back home.

"Look," Damon said slowly, beginning his conversation off the best way he could. She looked over at him, her blonde hair shadowing the counter and her grey eyes waiting for him to say something, "Contrary to what we _do, _I don't want to fight you anymore today. I think I've maxed out."

Claire gasped sarcastically. "_Damon Salvatore _has a max on his witty remarks and retorts? Oh, how can this be?"

Damon glared at her. "Now, Claire, don't be rude," he scolded. She couldn't do anything but laugh, and at this, Damon smiled. "Take a time-out, okay? Just five minutes. Have some fun with me."

"Fun?" Claire asked slowly. Damon nodded. "With…_you_?"

"With me," he confirmed. She kept her eyebrows raised, weary. "We despise each other, we screw each other, _whatever_. All of that's on pause for a moment. Just…have some _fun_."

"I _invented _fun, Damon."

Damon smirked. "Then prove it," he challenged. And, after all, who was Claire King if she wouldn't accept a challenge?

It was now nighttime, and Elena was completely plastered—Damon and Claire as plastered as vampires could be for their nature. All of the men and women at the bar crowded around it, everyone ready with a shot glass in their hand, as Bree slowly counted down, "Ready…._go_!"

Elena finished first, then Claire, then Damon, who missed his mouth a little on the shot. While Elena did her infamous winning dance and politely—and loudly—conversed with the people around her, Claire laughed as Damon tried to catch the alcohol falling out of his mouth. "Oh, you're so _pathetic!" _She laughed lightly. "Do you need a bib, baby?" Claire pouted, giving him a teasing glance.

Damon gave a bitter laugh. "Sorry I can't unhinge my jaw like a _snake _to consume alcohol," he retorted, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, giving her a dirty glance and smile.

She snickered to herself before looking over at Bree. "Bree, can I get a two tequila shots with salt and lime, please?" Claire asked politely, though her tone was innocently vicious. Bree nodded and, beside Claire and Damon, Elena jumped up high, her hand signaling a line.

"…tolerance is like _way _up…_here!" _the teenager giggled, unable to stand still. Bree walked over to Claire and Damon and gave them the salt, the limes, and the shots all in one trip. They thanked her and Damon rolled his sleeve up, bracing to lick his thumb for the salt.

"Ah," Claire stopped him, grabbing his hand before he was able to press his tongue to it. "We're doing this my way."

"What way is that?" he asked, a certain sparkle in his eye. She smirked to herself.

"You remember JFK?" she asked him, to which he nodded. "Yeah, he always liked when we did this together."

With that said, she positioned Damon's fingers like he'd had them before and pulling his hand up to her mouth, where she licked the skin, grabbed the salt, and put it on the area she'd targeted.

"Grab the lime," she ordered, knowing that Damon was enjoying this. He reached over with his other hand, grabbed the lime, and she grabbed one of the tequila shots on the counter. Damon smiled and watched as a devilish grin spread across her face, she pulled his hand up to her mouth, licked the salt, downed the shot, and Damon held the lime up for her to bite. The alcohol, though strong and hot, went down easy, and because she was a vampire, didn't have as much of an effect. But the effect it had on Damon was more than enough satisfaction than she thought it would be.

"I _like _your way," Damon approved, the same smirk on his face from before. "That JFK was one smart guy."

"Not smart enough to hide the fact that he was cheating on me with that skank, Marilyn Monroe."

Damon laughed. "All right, 'fess up. You killed her, didn't you?"

"You'll never know," she said cryptically before gesturing to the other tequila shot. "Your turn."

His eyes caught hers for just a split second before he grabbed her hand, the warmth echoing through her, and he repeated her earlier process of the dirtier lick it, slam it, suck it. But he made it twice as painful for her as it was for him. He let his licks loiter, and the smile that he brought back onto his lips just increased the situation's intensity. When his was done, he tossed the tequila shot down on the counter and gripped Claire's hands tighter, launching her towards him.

"Let's go," he said huskily, pulling her in the direction he wanted. Claire gasped.

"But Elena…"

"Oh, who the hell cares?" Damon snapped. "She's drunk off her ass, she won't notice we're gone."

But Elena wasn't really the problem here. Claire's question was merely sarcastic, because she wasn't letting Damon get what he wanted either way. She bit her lip and shook her head, refusing his pull towards a place of solitude.

"Nope."

He blinked at her and stopped trying to get her to go with him. "What do you mean _no_?" he asked, his voice incredulous. Damon's eyes widened. "You didn't expect me to be so _controlled _after that, did you?"

She smiled to herself. "Actually, I was planning on the exact opposite."

Damon let his jaw drop in the slightest. "You…"

Clarissa turned their hands over so that she had control of them, and she brought Damon's salted hands towards her this time. Her fingers brushed over the salted spot, and Damon groaned at the soft touch. "I had to get even at you for stealing my picture _somehow_. I told you, our little arrangement is over."

"You don't really expect me to _believe_ that, do you?" Damon asked, sure that she wouldn't be able to hold this up. "You want me just as much as I want you. Maybe even more," he said darkly.

She shrugged. "True," Claire agreed. But her lips turned into a smile. "But not tonight, I don't." Damon looked like he was about ready to take what he wanted, but before he could, Claire caught sight of Elena over by the pool table playing against herself. With nothing said to the angry vampire in front of her, Claire just smirked at him, brushed his shoulder, and walked over to Elena, who spun around with her hands in the air because she had pocketed the ball she hit.

"Yeah!" Elena shouted happily and posed. "I'm _awesome_!" she sung. All of a sudden, though, there was a ringing tone, and Elena's attention was quickly diverted from Claire towards her cell phone giving sharp rings. She rushed over to it and answered. "Hello?"

"_Elena," _said a female's voice on the other side of the line.

"Jenna…!" The drunken Elena tried to cover up her intoxication by pitching her voice higher. "Uh…hold on. It's loud in here."

Claire watched as Elena grabbed her jacket and began to go outside and, seeing as the human could barely take two steps without stumbling, she tried to help Elena. Her aunt's voice pushed through the phone as Elena stumbled and stumbled, being saved by Claire, who guided her out of the building as quickly as she could while Elena jabbed at the air, trying to put on her jacket. Unfortunately, when Claire held the door open for Elena, that's when she needed it the most, and the teenager tripped and fell, dropping her phone in the process with a groan. Elena desperately clawed on the ground for her phone, and in doing so, she didn't even notice when Claire's neck was snapped for the second time.

"Hello?" Elena tried through the phone in her drunken stupor, oblivious to the unconscious vampire just a few feet away from her. By the time her reaction time had settled in and she realized that Claire was, in fact, temporarily dead, she didn't have enough time before someone put his hand over her mouth and she screamed, though it didn't do much help.

Meanwhile, back inside, Damon slid into a chair on the bar, sighing. Bree, who was behind the counter, noticed his presence, of course. "Hey," she chimed. Looking around, she searched for Claire and Elena. "Where are your girls?"

Damon looked up and around the room, his eyes sweeping across the facility to tell Bree just, exactly, where Claire and Elena were. But when he didn't find them, he hummed to himself. "They were _right _back there."

Bree said nothing, but Damon merely caught sight of an open back door, and he immediately took the feeling in his gut and acted on it. He looked around once he was outside, and when his eyes drifted to the floor, he soon realized that something was horribly, horribly wrong.

"Damn it," Damon groaned, seeing Claire's temporarily unconscious body on the floor. Her arm was laying across the hardwood floor, but her clothing had blended into the night. He had no doubt that he would hear about this when she was awake. He bent down and picked Claire up so that she wouldn't be lying so uncomfortably on the floor, and he set her down against the side of the building, her head rolled to the side. He was just about to think where Elena was, but the sight of a glowing phone on the outside deck reminded him. It, sure enough, was Elena's phone, but there was no Elena to be found.

Seeing as he knew Claire would be okay when he woke up, Damon reached down, grabbed the phone, and set off in another direction to find his brother's girlfriend.

* * *

Claire's fingers twitched as she slowly came back to life. The feeling in her hand was connected to her brain, and she rolled her head so that she woke up against the side of Bree's Bar. The world before her was slightly blurry, but in something of a second, it was returned back to normal. She wanted to blame this temporary killing on Damon, but she was ninety-nine percent sure that it wasn't him that had snapped her neck. It was someone else.

She looked around for Elena, but realizing that the teenager was gone, she began to panic.

That's when she heard a voice. Elena's, in particular.

"_Don't do this." _Silence—deafening silence. _"I'm begging you! Please!" _

Claire forced herself up from the ground and, with what little strength she had, she found the will to muster it all up and flash to where she heard the voices. As she arrived, she found Damon being thrown at the side of a power plant building by a vampire with tears welling up in his eyes. He began to saunter towards Damon, even when Claire showed up, and Elena's breath caught when she saw Claire arrive. The big bad vampire was stopped when Claire knocked him to the ground with the little strength she had left.

"That's _twice _in one day," she snarled, her fangs appearing in her mouth and her eyes going bloodshot and slithering with monstrous veins underneath. "I don't take kindly to vampires snapping my neck!"

It was when she realized who it was when she loosened her grip on the vampire's leather collar. "Lee?" she questioned, astounded.

"Claire," he said, but he didn't seem so surprised. In fact, he was on the verge of crying.

"What the _hell _are you doing here?" she growled. Now she was angry. Not only did she have her neck snapped twice but, by both times, it was from people she knew—one of which she actually liked. "What the hell were you doing snapping my neck?"

It didn't take a nuclear physicist to figure that one out—by the sight of everything going on. Gasoline was radiating through the air, there was a burnt out match in Lee's hand, and Damon was soaked in gasoline. "Were you trying to kill Damon?"

"He killed her," Lee began in a sobbing, painful voice. "He killed her."

"What the _hell _are you talking about? Killed who?"

"Lexi!" Lee shouted in her face, one sole tear drifting down the side of his face. "He killed Lexi! He killed Lexi!"

This was the moment of realization—the true turning point. Claire immediately went limp, losing all contact with her fingers and her brain. She began to feel emotions that she'd thought she had a handle on, at least most of the time. The anger, the sadness…they turned to rage and despair in one single instant. The despair was what gave out and what caused her to growl-whisper, "Lexi's dead?"

Lee nodded, and a whole eternity went by her. Lexi was…_dead. _Stefan and Damon lied to her. _Stefan _lied to her. It wasn't so much about Damon lying, it was Stefan. Stefan agreed that Lexi just went away. She wondered if he knew, and that's when it truly began to sink in—what if Stefan _didn't _know? What if Damon killed Lexi and told his brother that she left town? What if Damon, being the heartless bastard that he was, had killed one of her best friends?

Here's what: she would kill him. She would kill him with her own two hands.

Clarissa angrily yanked Lee up from the ground with her hands around the collar of his jacket. She could see the hope shine in his eyes that she might actually let him kill Damon, but instead, she squared her jaw. "If anyone is going to kill Damon Salvatore, it's going to be _me, _you got it? Get out of here," she snapped.

"Claire—"

"I said _now_," Claire growled at him, and Lee knew when to quit. His eyes flickered up to Elena, who was the innocent bystander in all of this, and with the same tearful eyes that he had shown up with, he flashed away, leaving Claire, Damon, and Elena alone.

"Claire…" She heard the whisper come from Damon's mouth, and in a mere second, she flashed up to him, grabbed him by the shirt collar, and forced him to stand straight.

"Tell me you didn't kill her!" Claire snarled in his face, jerking his head back. Damon was already weak from the beating that Lee had given him. "Tell me that you didn't _lie_!"

"I didn't kill her," Damon choked out, his voice desperately trying to match that of an honest person's. "I didn't kill her, Claire, believe me."

Behind Claire, Elena just raised her eyebrows. She had seen Damon kill Lexi that night at the Grill—why was he lying to Claire? Would it be so bad if she knew the truth?

Claire's eyes filled up with tears as she loosened her grip slightly on Damon's collar. "But…but you lied," she prompted.

Damon swallowed. "Yes," he said slowly. "Yes, I lied." His gasoline-soaked hands moved up and touched her wrists. Not to make her pull away from him, but to show her that he was trying to make amends. Though the lies spilled out of his mouth like it was the actual truth. "She's dead."

She broke down. It was the first time in a long time that Damon Salvatore had ever seen Clarissa King cry.

It was a while later when Clarissa was sitting on the hood of Damon's car, drinking out of a bottle of alcohol that Damon had supplied her with to keep her from crying again. She hadn't cried all that long—a few minutes, at most. Elena was heartbroken at the sight, and she was very aware that Damon was lying to Claire about the situation. She wanted to know why.

She walked into Bree's Bar, where Damon had disappeared into after he said that they would leave. She walked in on the sight of Damon wiping his hands on a towel behind the counter. Elena could clearly make out the sight of blood on the towel, but she didn't want to ask. There was no doubt in her mind that Damon, such a vile monster, wanted revenge for being almost killed. If it weren't for Claire, he would most likely be dead, and Elena would've had to have been forced to watch that gruesome sight.

"You ready to go?" Damon asked, his voice somber. He was completely disheveled, and she realized that—out of the three of them, she had probably had enjoyed the trip the most, and she didn't even enjoy it that much.

"You lied to her," Elena whispered, her voice soft and quiet so that Claire wouldn't hear. Damon was right by her, so he would pick up on her words. "Why?"

"Elena," Damon said slowly, walking forward, "If Claire finds out what I did, she'll kill me. She already hates me enough."

"What if you're wrong?" Elena countered. She'd seen it over the last two hours—there was something _there. _Elena wasn't ready to believe that this woman hated Damon and he hated her. "What if she can forgive you?"

"Not everyone's as forgiving as you, Elena," Damon said, his voice oddly cold. "Maybe…one day, I can drop the bomb on her. Fifty years from now or so. But you won't be around to see it," he promised. Elena flinched slightly, and her mind drifted back to Stefan as if it was on automatic. It didn't take long before Damon ordered her out of the bar, grabbing his leather jacket on the way out.

* * *

Elena was sleeping in the backseat of the car, her snores the most prominent sound that was in Damon and Claire's ears, despite the fact that they had the radio on. They had been up all night driving back from Georgia, and now, the dawn broke out through the horizon and shone in their eyes. Claire hadn't shed a single tear since she cried, and she didn't show any sign of being down, even though Damon knew she was. He didn't say anything, though—he let her take the lead.

"So…tell me," she said, turning her head to him. "Why was it so important for me to go on this trip?"

Damon looked over at her with a playful smile. "What, besides the obvious?"

Claire shook her head, but a smile appeared on her lips. "Come on. You had your little witch bitch to keep you entertained and you could've dropped me back at the house to be with Stefan. So why did you haul my ass with you? Some sort of sick torture, maybe?"

Damon scoffed. "You're not the _worst_ company in the world, Claire," he said, shrugging.

Claire stared at him incredulously. "Come on, seriously. Where's Damon Salvatore and how do I get him back?" Damon smirked to himself and looked out the window before responding.

"I…felt bad, okay? You pissed me off, I snapped your neck, and I was…"

"Sorry?" Claire filled in.

Damon frowned. "Yes…" he trailed off, a certain acrid taste in his mouth. "Yes, I was _sorry_. And I wanted a chance to make it up to you."

This time, Claire was the one who scowled. "By taking my most prized possession?"

"Hey, I needed leverage." He shrugged again. "Plus, you know, you _are _fun when you want to be. I mean, dirty tequila shots in a public place? When will I ever get a chance to do that again?"

"Find some skank and compel her like you normally do," Claire repeated his shrug, but a laugh escaped her lips.

"Yeah, but you're _so _much better at it than they would be."

"Mmhmm." She smiled. Damon studied her as she glanced out the window, and he hummed to himself.

"And…" he trailed off, capturing her attention. She watched as he strained himself for another reason. "You aren't the _worst _company in the world, Claire."

She appreciated the comment, and Damon's smile, but they knew that the second they went back to Mystic Falls, they would find something to hate each other over yet _again_. Damon was quite worried about what she would do to Lexi's killer—whoever he chose to take the blame. "If I didn't know any better, I would think that you just gave me a compliment." Damon laughed in agreement and turned his head out into the open road. She was silent for a while, "I _saved _your life, you know."

Damon turned his head to her. "I know."

"You owe me."

"What kind of payment plan would you prefer?" Damon asked, his eyebrows raising. But it was then that Elena woke up in the back seat, stirring slowly at first, but then waking in the next second, and they halted all conversation.

They drove back to the boarding house in no time, reaching it by the time the late morning was beginning. Elena went straight upstairs with a sigh, bracing herself with a conversation with Stefan. Claire and Damon stood outside, Claire leaning against the hood of her car, tapping her phone against her hand. Damon slammed his door shut and walked over to her. "You better not be putting scratches on my hood," he warned.

"Relax, Grandpa," Claire joked and jumped off of the hood of his car. She brushed off her hands and gestured to the sparkling blue Camaro. "See? It's spotless."

She turned from him, but this was the moment that Damon could see her contemplating things. He knew exactly what she was contemplating, and this was what made him stay silent until she spoke again.

"Tell me who did it," Claire said, turning around sharply to face him, her eyes as serious as they came. She nodded to him once, and Damon, who wore a pained expression, sighed.

"Claire—"

"It's okay, just…just tell me." Damon stayed silent. "Come on, Damon, you've been nice to me for the last couple hours. What will another five minutes do?"

Damon thought about it for a moment, but it wasn't the fact that he wanted to be difficult that stopped him from telling her. He didn't know what she would do if he said the word that popped into his mind to blame it on—it was the most realistic and practical person he could think of, of course. But what would she do? She couldn't get revenge against another for something he did.

"Just…" Damon trailed off. "Promise me you won't do anything rash."

Claire frowned. "Whoever killed Lexi…_killed _Lexi, Damon. If you died, wouldn't you want vengeance?"

"It wasn't on purpose," Damon tried, spinning his lie in the direction he wanted it to go. He would fill Stefan in on it later. "You know, the Council in this town is ruthless. They see a vampire, they attack it. That's just how it—"

"Damon," Claire spoke softly. "_Tell me_."

Damon gave an annoyed breath when he realized that she wouldn't give it up. "It was Sheriff Forbes," he said, his voice flat. "She thought Lexi was a vampire, she staked her, and Lexi died. They thought they were rid of the town's problem. If I could've done anything to stop it, I would've." _Lies, _something chirped in Damon's head, but he swatted it away like a bug.

Claire thought it over for a moment, but Damon could see the change in her eyes. She wouldn't do anything. Not to a human—not to someone on the Council. Not if it was a misunderstanding. If it was intentional, of course—which is was, in all honesty—she would've ripped out the killer's throat with no remorse. Despite Damon's hatred against her, he didn't want to fight her on this. He was hoping she'd never find out.

In desperate attempt to change the subject, Damon cleared his throat and reached into his pocket. "So…I said that I would give this to you when we got back," he said, pulling out the small photograph of Clarissa and Amelia. Clarissa was eighteen in the picture, Amelia thirteen. He remembered the pain that Clarissa had gone through when her sister died. Though Damon was furious at the girl who'd broken his heart, he still expressed his condolences. It was the only moment he had shared with Clarissa, obviously unknown to his brother, that hadn't been full of rage at the time. It was in the morning when all of the hopes and dreams he'd had of making things work with Clarissa that it all fell apart.

Clarissa took the photo from him gently, looking down at the picture. "Thank you," she said, but there was a certain hatred in her voice. If Damon hadn't taken the picture in the first place, he wouldn't have had to have given it back.

All of a sudden, all niceties were drained away from Damon, and he stalked forward, forcing her back. "What are you doing?" she asked him, but he turned them so that her back hit the side of the car and he kept her there with his own body. His fingers traced the side of her face and jerked it to the side, where he leaned forward so his lips were by her ear.

"You won't last a _day _without me, you know," he whispered in her ear, low enough so that Stefan wouldn't have the slightest clue. Besides, he was too busy with Elena to notice. "So you want to keep this up, you'll be the one coming to _me _next time."

Though Clarissa's breathing pattern was slightly jagged, she managed to retort, "You think I'm that weak? God, you don't know me at all." She gripped his hand that was keeping her head to the side, removed it from her face, and kept it balled into a fist when she looked back at him. But he was enjoying her retaliation, not moving as she closed more distance between them so it was even more limited now. "I don't _need_ you, Damon."

Damon hummed. "We'll see," he smiled, the corners of his lips turning up vindictively. He stepped back, giving her an extra moment to smell his intoxicating scent, and then he yanked his hand from hers and she watched as he walked around the car. "I'm going to the Grill. Tell Stefan I said good morning."

With that, the old Damon was back, and he climbed into his car, backed out of the driveway, and drove off to drown his sorrows in more liquor—like the whole day yesterday wasn't enough.

* * *

**So, I don't know if you all watched the Season 5 finale the other night...let's just pretend it never happened, okay? Okay. It's the only way I'm going to get through this summer. Raise your hand if you're still crying over it. *Raises my own hand***

**Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I'll update ASAP. Review if you can! **

_**Love, **_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_


	4. Unpleasantville

**Hey, everyone! I'm finally done with Driver's Ed on Tuesday, and there are only two more weeks of school :) Plus, those last four days are half days because of exams so finally! Summer's approaching quickly. I can't wait. **

**Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Review if you can. **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Unpleasantville**

So, it had been settled—Claire and Stefan were both staying in Mystic Falls. Elena and Stefan were back together and he wanted to stay with her as long as he could. But, even though this mysterious man who had intentionally stood in front of Elena's car was a major issue as of the moment, Damon was an even bigger threat. He spent his entire night searching the shelves of the Salvatore library, and some of the morning, too. It was in the morning while Claire was getting her stuff from the compelled Rio townsmen she had asked to bring her stuff to the States that Stefan talked to Damon about his secret agenda, to which Damon brushed off like it was nothing, like he always did. Claire didn't have a lot of things, but what she did own, she put them into one of the guest rooms closer to Stefan's side of the house than Damon's just so her best friend wouldn't get suspicious. Besides, Damon and Claire had made their rules clear: until she came to him, he wouldn't pressure. He was quite convinced she'd crack, but she found other ways to preoccupy her time; like planning her outfit for this 1950's dance Stefan and Elena invited her to be the chaperone to.

"Is it possible for a vampire to get fat?" Claire asked, playing around with the clingy fabric of her authentic skin-tight leather pants and constricting red top. It was _literally _from the fifties—the perks of being a vampire. She kept the few outfits she liked over the decades just in case anything came back into style. Tonight was the night she finally got to use that one pesky hoarder trait of hers. Claire turned around to Stefan, who was buttoning up his grey shirt. "I don't remember having to stop breathing in order to fit into this thing."

Stefan laughed. "I still think you should've gone with the poodle skirt." Claire rolled her eyes. "Or the Pink Ladies jacket you stole from the movie set in the seventies."

"Oh, my _God_," Claire groaned, pulling her long, pale hair up and away from her face. "I remember the _Grease _phase. That jacket's probably worth a fortune by now. Too bad vampires don't need money," she chirped and reached down with the hand that wasn't holding her hair up in a perfect bunch so that she could tie it with the red silken hair tie they used back then. The outfit she'd chosen was the one that all of the impure, racy girls wore back in the day—and since she was no saint, she didn't bother buying any of the nice-girl clothes: the calf-length skirts, white shirts, and quarter sleeve open sweaters. She was much more like Rizzo than Sandy back then.

She finished tying her hair up into a ponytail using the silk ribbon when Stefan responded, "Didn't you take the T-Birds jacket that _I _stole?"

Claire smiled. "Guilty," she sang, which earned a laugh from Stefan. "Oh, come on. It's not like you were going to wear it, anyway, Mr. I'm-too-cool-for-leather-jackets-anymore," she taunted, sitting down on Stefan's bed to relax before she had to slip on her shoes and get going with Stefan to the dance.

"You know, you could've just _asked_," Stefan mused, a smile twitching on his lips. Claire shrugged as she lay across the edge of his bed, her hand propping her head up and her hair obeying gravity by swaying behind it.

"Yeah, but what fun would that be?" Claire shrugged. "Wait a second! Unless you're _angry _at me for taking it!" Stefan said nothing. "Wait, _are _you?"

Stefan laughed and looked up at her, incredulous. "When have I _ever _been angry at you, Claire?"

Claire twitched her lips. "Err…actually, you were pretty mad at me back then before I left." Stefan frowned at the mention of the memory, and she just rolled off the bed and sighed. "Oh, well. Let bygones be bygones." She bounced up to him and poked his chest, causing Stefan to loosen up. "Come on. Aren't we going to party like it's…nineteen fifty?" she finished, a puzzled look crossing her face at her own statement. "Does that work?"

Stefan was confused, too, and eventually he just shook his head. "No. No, it doesn't."

In no time at all, they were on their way to Elena's, taking their time making their way over to the teenager's house. Stefan showed Claire some of the town that they passed on their on-foot trip to the Gilbert house, sometimes having flash races in between. It was nothing but fun and games until Claire spotted something peculiar outside of a suburban house that Stefan had pointed out as Elena's.

"Stefan…" Claire trailed off, pointing in the direction of the house. "There's something there," she murmured so that the vampire lurking wouldn't hear. It was when Stefan saw the vampire go into the house that he wasted no more time _thinking _about what would happen, and he was out of sight.

Unlike Claire, Stefan was able to get inside the second they suspected anything from only a block down from Elena's house. Claire had managed to break down the door, but she wasn't able to cross the threshold. In the commotion of it all, Stefan lost the vampire, who went out by way of Elena's back door, leaving nothing but a frightened girl, a worrisome vampire, and a helpless vampire in its wake.

Stefan picked Elena up from the floor and pulled her into his arms, asking her if she was okay over and over again, to which Elena responded the same answer. She was fine, but the three of them knew that she very well couldn't have been if Stefan and Claire hadn't shown up in time.

Claire cleared her throat, gaining Elena and Stefan's attention. "Not to…err…be insensitive or anything, but…" She pressed her hand against the threshold, where an invisible blockade forced her hand back. Stefan and Elena both sighed, but out of a still worried relief, and Elena invited the blonde vampire waiting at her door into the house, and Stefan immediately pulled out his phone and called Damon.

"How'd he get in?" Damon demanded once he was inside Elena's house. Claire was very aware that Damon had already been invited in beforehand, and at this, she was amazed. Big bad vampire and all, it seemed unlikely that Elena would just invite him into her home. Must've been unintentional or something like that.

Elena sat on the couch, next to Stefan, who had his hand placed on her thigh comfortingly. Claire sat on the couch's arm next to Stefan, who was freaking out slowly.

"He was invited in," Elena choked out, still shocked over her near-death experience.

"He posed as a pizza delivery guy last night," Stefan added.

"Clever," said Claire, just as Damon agreed with her in his own way by saying, "Well, he gets points for that."

A silence passed before Damon spoke again, "Did he say what he wanted?"

"No, he was too busy trying to _kill _me," Elena retorted, moving her head at him and giving Damon the equivalent of a death glare.

"And you have _no _idea who this is?" Stefan asked Damon, an accusing tone in his voice. All earlier light-hearted, laid-back Stefan had been drained and he was now serious as ever. Claire understood though—it was risky being with a human. One wrong move and they're dead and you're alone forever. It sucks to be a vampire sometimes.

Damon shook his head. "No," he said, and Stefan looked at him with a slightly questioning nod. "Don't look at me like that. I _told _you we had company."

Elena glanced up at Damon quickly. "You think there's more than one?" she asked, alarmed.

Damon stiffened and eventually said, "We don't know."

"This can't just be some uncanny coincidence," Claire refused, shaking her head as she pulled her thumb into her mouth and thought it over. "Whoever this guy is, he obviously has a plan. And there _has_ to be a reason."

Stefan knotted his eyebrows at her. "You think he's after Elena because she looks like Katherine?" he asked.

Claire raised her own eyebrow at him in a disbelieving kind of tone. "Vampires may hunt their prey, Stefan, but they don't go through these types of lengths unless you're one _seriously _sadistic bastard. I mean, they're not _all _Damon Salvatore." Damon rolled his eyes, but Claire just bushed past her own joke and rubbed her hands on her thighs in thought. "Anyways, regardless of the reason, he'll have a plan. Now that he's been made, he'll have to finish it."

"Look at you," Damon taunted, sitting down on the other side of the couch by Elena. "Ever the psychologist."

Things went silent after Claire ignored his comment and Stefan spoke again, his voice strained and worried. He spoke his friend's name softly. "Claire." Claire looked down at him to find Stefan staring up at her. "He was _invited _in."

Claire realized the importance of the statement, and so did Damon, who was nodding to himself. Before Claire could respond to Stefan, Damon was the one that did it for her, "Then we go get him tonight." He shrugged and turned to Elena. "You up for it?"

"What do I have to do?" asked the timid human.

"Let your boyfriend take you to the dance," Damon spoke evenly, never missing a beat. "Claire and I can keep watch and see who shows up."

"It's a bad idea," Stefan warned, but Claire vouched for Damon, who was finally thinking of someone other than himself. It didn't surprise her—Katherine look-alike and all that.

"You said it yourself, Stefan, he was _invited _in," she explained. Stefan was still weary of the plan, but she continued. "Until we get him, no one in this house is safe." Elena looked up at her, almost searching for a confirmation to Damon's words. "If we don't get him tonight, there's no telling what he'll do."

Elena sighed deeply, but then she nodded and straightened, trying to put on a brave face for the vampires surrounding her. "I'll do it," she said immediately, and Stefan, though still weary, accepted her decision. Elena could see right through him, so she reached forward and grabbed his hand. "With all of you with me, I'll be safe," she assured her boyfriend.

All the vampires in the room made eye contact with each other, and they knew they were all in for one hell of a night.

* * *

Claire, Damon, Stefan, and Elena all walked into the energetic high school gymnasium filled with teenagers either drunk or just high on life…or possibly something much stronger. Fifties music blasted from the speakers and a slideshow played up against the projector in the gym, being blinded by students' heads and the eons of streamers and balloons that coated the gymnasium.

Damon sighed heavily, tilting his head to Claire in just the slightest so she knew he was talking to her. "Quick, favorite decade?" he questioned, a smirk on his face. Though he did not look at her, her grey eyes drifted up to him and quickly looked around the crowd of teenagers, scoffing.

"Tell me this won't turn into Twenty Questions."

"Oh, come on! It's just a question. Favorite decade?" Damon spun around on his heel to stop her from moving, swiveling so that he was just in front of her. A few feet away, Elena and Stefan were already at a table, talking with each other.

She pursed her lips at him. "You're going to think this is because of you, but it's not." Damon raised an eyebrow. "The twenties," she concluded, and Damon nodded. "There's nothing that can be more fun than partying in prohibited jazz clubs with an unlimited supply of illegal alcohol."

"And you're _positive _that's the only reason?" he attempted, but she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Yes, I'm _positive." _She paused. "And you?"

Damon looked around the gymnasium, his eyes wandering from costumed girl to costumed girl. "What about me?"

"Favorite decade?" she questioned, crossing her arms at him. He glanced down at her, removing his eyes from the crowd. "I'm making this a 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' type of thing, just so you know." Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Stefan squeeze Elena's hand and walk over to the punch bowl, probably to get a drink for his girlfriend.

"Mm," Damon agreed, but his eyes involuntarily drifted down the length of her, surveying her costume. It was hard _not _to stare at the revealing outfit—something that a regular student could potentially get kicked out with if they had worn it the way she did. He kept himself controlled, but on the inside, he was raging. He always was. If he didn't find her attractive, they would've never slept together, so there it was: he found Clarissa King breathtakingly attractive.

Annoying, but attractive.

"The fifties," he responded coyly, glancing up at her. She looked at him in return, puzzled.

"Why?"

"Well, if you were dressed that way the whole decade…" he trailed off, letting her imagine the rest. Though the statement was _wildly _inappropriate to be making in the same room as Stefan, but their voices were low enough that only they could hear.

"All right, I think that's our cue to stop now." She smiled at him teasingly. "I thought I told you I was done with this mess."

Damon puckered his lips. "And…_how _many times have you said that over the years?" She frowned at him. "Oh…wait. You've said it at _least _four times."

Clarissa sighed, frustrated with him. "Now you're just pissing me off." She brushed past him and heard Damon's chuckle.

"After all, that's what I do best."

Claire, tired of being with the elder Salvatore brother that pissed her off for sport, went over to Stefan at the drink table. He was scooping punch into a cup very domestically when Claire came up behind him and sighed heavily. "You know, everyone seems to forget all of the shit that happens in this decade. To them, it's all varsity jackets and poodle skirts."

Stefan turned to her and laughed. "People like to forget the bad history, Claire. Replace it with a better one."

She groaned. "Yeah, but they're so _painfully _inaccurate when they do that! If only everyone got to live forever; they would all see our way of life."

"Ah," Stefan protested, placing the ladle down in the punch bowl and successfully holding up two punch cups. "See, now _that _would be a problem. If everyone became like us, we would have no food source left. And animal supply would run out quickly."

Claire frowned. "Rain on my parade, why don't you, Stefan," she mocked, and he smiled before she grabbed the cup of punch in his hand. Stefan sighed.

"That was for Elena…" he trailed off and watched as she downed the liquid like it was a shot. When she crushed the cup in her hand, she shrugged.

"So? I'll pour her another one. It's called _effort, _Stefan. Effort." Stefan rolled his eyes before glancing around the room, worried. At this, Claire attempted to ease his discomfort as she grabbed another cup and scooped the red liquid into it. "Relax, Stefan. Damon and I can handle this. Tonight's all about your experience as a high school teenager."

Stefan turned back at her with a sigh. "Yeah, I know, I just…" He paused, almost stopping mid-sentence like he'd caught something wrong. Claire continued to scoop the punch into the cup to fill another one she would have for herself. "Wait a second, did I actually hear the words 'Damon and I' come out of your mouth?"

Claire laughed bitterly. "Well, Stefan, if Damon and I are going to live in the same town, we have to be at least _tolerable _with each other. Besides, it's for the greater good. Protecting a human, teenage Katherine Pierce look-alike. _Worth it,_" she sang, but it was obviously sarcastic.

Stefan eyed her carefully. "You and Damon? Living…_in peace_?"

At this, Claire scoffed. "Who said anything about peace? I just said we have to learn to be tolerable. That does _not _mean peace. I'm still contemplating how to stake him in his sleep."

Stefan shook his head in disbelief. "The conflict between you two will never end, will it?"

Claire shrugged. "Nope." With a smile, she brought her own cup to her lips, drank out of it more conservatively this time, and grabbed Elena's in her hand. She extended it out to Stefan. "One cup of punch for your girl all ready to go."

"Actually," Stefan countered, not taking the cup. "Do you mind giving it to her? I need to go talk to Damon."

Claire shrugged once more, and with an expression of his gratitude, Stefan was off in the other direction. Claire scanned the crowd for Elena's position, and she eventually found her with two other girls, who were clinking cups at each other. Making her way through the sea of frisky teenagers, she walked up to Elena and the duo beside her. "They're not shots, but they'll have to do." She smiled widely, handing Elena the red liquid.

"Thanks," Elena said gracefully, accepting the cup. She turned back to Bonnie and Caroline and quickly made the introductions. "Caroline, Bonnie, this is Claire King, Stefan's friend. She's, uh, staying at the Salvatore house." Elena turned to Claire and gestured. "Claire, this is Caroline and Bonnie, my friends."

The two teenagers gave awkward smiles to Claire, as if assessing her for some odd reason. Claire felt uncomfortable under the stare of the two snap-judging teenagers, and she forced a smile. She'd met Caroline before and had seen the judging eyes, but Caroline didn't remember her at all, obviously due to Damon's compulsion.

"Are you a chaperone or a new student?" Bonnie asked, her eyebrows knotting. Claire recognized Bonnie as the possessed Bennett witch who had performed the spell that destroyed Damon's beloved crystal, but she had never personally _met _Bonnie before.

"Oh, _God _no, not a student." Claire laughed. "High school days are _over. _I'm chaperoning."

"Hey," Elena interrupted, looking around. "Where did Stefan go, again?"

"Oh, he went to talk to Damon," Claire said, a certain attitude in her voice. Her eyes scanned the crowd, searching for the two Salvatore brothers. When she spotted them, she pointed Elena in the direction. "There you go."

"Thanks," Elena smiled and went off, leaving Caroline, Bonnie, and Claire all by themselves. Bonnie and Caroline were looking off in Damon's direction with disgust as Stefan separated from his brother.

Bonnie groaned, converting her disgusted look into a tone. "Look at him. He's just so…so…"

"Smug? Cocky? Just _smells _like a jack-ass?" Claire interrupted, gaining Caroline and Bonnie's attention. They looked at her with widened eyes, as if they'd struck gold. "Yeah, that's Damon Salvatore for you. I mean, come on. Who comes to a decade dance without dressing up? Literally _refused _to go home and change." She shook her head, almost disappointed.

"Oh, my _God,_" Caroline breathed, glancing at Bonnie. "I think I just found an older, less prettier version of _me_."

Claire, at first, was pleased with the comment, but then she realized what Caroline had said. "Wait a second…"

"Hi, Bonnie," a voice cooed, and all three girls turned to see Damon approaching them. Claire simply ignored his presence while both Caroline and Bonnie turned to him, feeding him what he needed: attention. "Wanna dance?"

Bonnie was cold and monotone as she scoffed, "I'm _outta _here."

Damon stepped in front of her, pulling her arm back. "Please give me another chance," he begged. Damon Salvatore, _begging? _Now this was a sight Claire had always wanted to see, so she turned to him with a confused look and wide grin.

Bonnie, having the ultimate girl-power, scoffed and turned away from him, never caving under his smoldering gaze. She brushed past him and walked off, and at this, Caroline walked forward and spoke to him sharply, "Back off, Damon."

Damon flinched as Caroline walked after Bonnie, leaving him and Claire by the table. Claire didn't try to even conceal her soft, breathless chuckles. "Three cheers for feminists," she taunted, which just earned a sour smile on Damon's face.

Before he could retort, Elena's voice was behind him, "Where did they go?"

Damon turned around to face them and shrugged. "I don't know."

Elena and Stefan were clearly curious and amused at the same time. Stefan obviously overheard the conversation. "What'd you say to 'em?"

Claire snorted. "What _didn't _he say to them?"

Damon looked back at her with a dark glare, but then back at Stefan with a sweet smile. "I was _perfectly _polite," he defended himself, and then turned his head to the dolled-up Elena, who was enjoying this. "Elena," he began. She straightened at his address, "Would_ you_ like to dance?"

Elena's voice was sweet and innocent, "I would _love _to." Damon smirked to himself, chuckling in satisfaction. But his happiness was short-lived when Elena turned to Stefan and said, "May I have this dance?"

Stefan didn't say anything but merely propped out his elbow, in which Elena took with a fiery, pleased gaze towards Damon. The raven-haired vampire's smile just turned, and he could hear Claire choking on her drink.

"Wow. That has to be…like, a _record _or something." She couldn't resist laughing. "I mean, _three _girls? Wow. By the way, when did you become a pedophile? I went to law school once and I'm _pretty _sure that an adult dating a minor is illegal."

Damon turned around at her. "Nothing's illegal in our world, sugar." Claire shrugged simply and pulled her drink back to her lips again. "But if you want to go with logistics, _you _are legal. So why don't you dance with me?" He made himself clear this time, but that didn't change the answer.

"Mm…" Claire hummed to herself. "I'd rather _not, _though."

"It's just _one _dance!"

"Why are you so desperate?" Claire asked, now concerned with his intentions. "You can't _honestly _be so desperate to want to dance with _me_."

Damon shrugged. "I asked you, didn't I?" She frowned at him.

"Yeah. Last. Which proves that you're desperate. I don't accept scraps, Damon, you should know this by now." She shook her head, but didn't let him get to her on the subject. Dancing with Damon Salvatore wasn't her first choice in hobbies.

Damon scowled at this. "Come on. I'm bored, and I'm not going to go home tonight without dancing. There's nothing to _do _here," he complained.

Claire straightened. "Uh…have you _forgotten _that we're supposed to be going all _Buffy _on this guy who's trying to kill Elena?"

Damon gestured around the room. "Well, look around! I don't see him, do you?"

"No, that's why we have to be on the lookout."

Damon groaned. "_God, _you're frustrating. And very empowered, too." Claire drained the rest of her punch as Damon's expression changed from annoyed to confused and concerned. "What are you up to?"

She placed her empty cup on the table and sighed, looking up at him. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," he countered, his words serving as gateway to the words he really wanted to say. Claire straightened. "You're hiding something. That's why you're so insistent upon staying away from me," he whispered.

Claire scoffed and began to walk away. "Not everyone has bad intentions, Damon, I'm simply insistent upon staying away from you because I've _outgrown _you." She walked up to his shoulder, just a few seconds away from brushing past him. "It only took me nine decades."

She walked away from him to go to get another drink to look around the gymnasium, but Damon had followed her, clearly not getting the hint. She sighed, frustrated, as he continued, "The problem, Claire, is that I don't _believe _you."

She turned to him sharply. "You don't have to. I'm not doing this for you; I'm doing this for _me. _Now can you just shut up and help me stake out this place? You've already been distracting enough with this skeptical nonsense." She almost scoffed at the thought of her having alternate intentions when it came to _stopping _sex with Damon. What did he think she wanted? A relationship? Next joke, please.

Damon kept his eyes locked on her, to which she accidentally caught and was unable to tear her eyes away from his gaze. The speakers above them had shifted the song from a slow one to a loud, upbeat one, and they heard a voice right beside them.

"Hey, I don't recognize you two." Damon and Claire both turned their heads to face a sandy-haired, blue-eyed teacher wearing a varsity jacket with the letter _M _on it. "How'd you guys get roped into chaperoning?" Both vampires were silent; the nature of this directness was quite concerning. "Alaric Saltzman," the man introduced. "I'm the new…History teacher."

Alaric held out his hand, to which Damon took and shook firmly. "Ah," he mused, "the…cursed faculty position."

"So I've been told." Alaric smiled.

"I'm sorry..." Claire turned to Damon. "The _what_?"

Damon looked between Alaric and Claire. "I'll…uh, tell you later," he mumbled, and she was left with no choice but to push it to the side as Damon spoke to the teacher again. "Damon. Salvatore," he added.

"Salvatore?" Alaric noted. "As in, uh, Stefan?"

"He's my little brother," Damon almost sung. "I'm his legal guardian, hence the…chaperoning."

"Ah," Alaric agreed, and then his eyes drifted to Claire. "I'm sorry, and you are?"

"Claire," she responded, almost weary of the direct teacher. "Claire King. I'm Stefan's friend from…err, _way _back. Hence, the chaperoning," she said, gesturing towards Damon to give credit to her plagiarized words.

"Well, I hear he's very bright," Alaric praised. "Not that I've had a chance to see for myself." He scoffed.

Damon defended his brother quickly, "Well, his attendance record's a little spotty. Family drama," he clarified.

Alaric nodded in understanding. "No parents?"

Damon seemed almost annoyed by this man's presence. "Mm, it's just the two of us now. And, Claire, of course." He jerked his head to the side to indicate her presence.

But Alaric didn't seem as interested in Claire as he was Damon. His eyes would flicker to the blonde-haired vampire at Damon's side, but he said nothing to her and focused on prying into Damon's life. "You, uh…you live here your whole life?"

"On and off," Damon responded. "Travel a bit."

"Really?" Alaric questioned, fishing for answers. "Where? Around the states?"

Damon gave the brown-nosing teacher a sideward, icy glance, and at this, Alaric began to apologize with a scoff. "I'm sorry. I'm nosy, I…I don't mean to pry." He looked between both Claire and Damon. "Look, it was nice meeting you two."

"You too," Damon and Claire said instantaneously, and Alaric wished them a good time at the dance before he walked away, ducking his head. Claire and Damon stood next to each other, watching as the mysterious history teacher disappeared into the crowd.

"You want to talk about bad intentions?" Claire muttered. "Because that teacher gives me some _serious _skeptical vibes."

At this, surprisingly, Damon agreed, "You and me both."

* * *

Damon had abandoned her to dance with some slutty teenage girl who was drooling all over him. Claire was watching from afar as Damon shamelessly groped this girl in the middle of the dance floor, never minding the fact she'd stated earlier. Stefan and Elena, all danced-out, came over to her as she was watching them, and Elena joined in on the observing. She spoke aloud to Stefan, "You _really _can't take him anywhere, can you?"

"Uh, _no_," Stefan returned, but his voice was teasing. Claire drained the rest of the fourth cup of punch she'd had to supplement her alcohol craving, and that's when she saw something. There was a man with a hood covering his face and a cap that secluded his eyes. Because of his lack of costume, this person was automatically on her suspicious list.

"Elena," Claire hissed through her teeth as she turned to Elena and the teenager straightened, hearing her distressed tone. Through her teeth, Claire spoke, "Back corner, it is him?"

Because she didn't get a good look at his face, Elena looked for her. Immediately, she gasped, turned back, and nodded.

Stefan straightened at this confirmation and touched Claire's arm lightly. "Get Damon," he demanded and began to fight the crowd to follow the suspicious character. Claire looked over at Elena.

"Stay here," she warned. "Don't move; there could be more. Damon and I will come get you," she promised, and then she was off in the crowd to find Damon still groping that same teenybopper. She didn't waste any time with niceties when she approached the teenage girl, gripped her arm tightly, and spun her out of Damon's grasp.

"Hey!" the girl protested in a shrieking voice. Claire's eyes focused in on the girl's and she began to use her powers of persuasion to get what she needed—Damon _alone._

"Leave. Now. Be shameful that you're letting a twenty-four year old man handle your ass like that and _never _do it again." She gave the girl a light smile and watched as she walked away, in a daze, leaving her and Damon on the dance floor by themselves.

Damon smirked at her. "If you wanted to dance with me, you should've just accepted my offer when it was on the table."

Claire didn't even attempt to toy with him. "Get over yourself, Damon. Look, he's here." It was all she needed to say to earn Damon's attention, and he immediately asked where Elena was. "She's over—"

The second Claire looked into the direction of where she left Elena; she could no longer see the human girl. She blinked once, twice, and a third time, looking around all the while, trying to see if she'd lost her surroundings. But, no, where she pointed at first was where Elena should've been. "Damon, she's gone."

"What?" Damon breathed, looking around, himself for the look-alike. It wasn't long before Stefan joined the searching party, fighting his way against the crowd.

"Where's Elena?" he asked rapidly, empty-handed. Claire turned around at him.

"What happened to the guy you were chasing after?"

Stefan shook his head. "He was compelled to lead me out. Where's Elena?" he repeated.

Damon muttered as he looked around the crowd, "Claire lost her," he said simply, but Stefan and Claire didn't even bother listening to Damon's excuses. "Come on," he urged and was the first one to force his way through the crowd to the exit, trying to pick up any scents and sounds he could possibly hear. It was when Damon, Claire, and Stefan _all _heard a high-pitched scream coming from the cafeteria that they realized where Elena was.

They fled to help her, and when they heard another shrilled scream, Stefan was the one to move faster than the rest. He went immediately to Elena while Claire and Damon barricaded the doors against escape.

"Hey, dickhead," Damon sung from behind the vampire, holding the wooden stake he had caught in the air as a weapon. He held his hands up in surrender, trying to make peace. "Nobody wants to kill you," he lied. "We just want to talk."

The vampire paid no attention to Damon's efforts, and he flashed over to Stefan, who caught the stake that Damon had thrown at him. Elena flinched when Stefan plunged the wooden stake into the attacking vampire's stomach, delaying him from further attacks. The vampire gasped and moaned in pain, falling to his knees. Damon and Claire both walked around to face the vampire as Stefan proposed, "Now you feel like talking?"

The vampire choked, "Screw you."

Stefan, with an angered face, thrust his fist against the wooden stake so that it resulted in the vampire groaning in further pain. The violence of the situation made the innocent Elena behind him just open her mouth in complete and utter shock.

"Wrong answer," Stefan hissed.

"Your reason," Claire began, crossing her arms as she walked over to Noah. "Give it to us. _Now. _I'm not as soft as Stefan here."

The vampire kneeling before them just gave a look of annoyance before he said, "It's fun."

Damon smirked at the answer, almost approving of this method of torture. Claire and Stefan shared a look, and when Stefan backed up, Claire took her foot and kicked the stake so that it impaled the vampire further, making him shout in infinite pain. The force of her kick was stronger than Stefan's punch, and it made him hunch over, gasping for air.

"Let's try this again, shall we?" she snapped, putting her foot firmly on the ground. "What do you want with Elena?"

The struggling vampire looked up underneath a layer of sweat, and he answered truthfully this time, "She looks like Katherine."

Claire, Stefan, and Damon all shared a glance, and Damon was the one who questioned this time. "You knew Katherine?"

The vampire beneath them made a sharp sound. "Ooh. You thought you were the only ones." He gave a gasping laugh. "You don't even remember me? Because I remember you." His eyes drifted up to Claire. "Clarissa King."

Claire looked down at him with disgust and just kicked the stake again so he grunted more, leaning forwards on his knees. Damon was the one who spoke next. "Tell me how to get into the tomb," Damon ordered, placing his hands on his knees so he could hover.

Claire looked over at Damon. "That's _seriously _number one on your priority list right now?"

Damon didn't even pay attention to her, as he hummed to the vampire to prompt him to respond.

"No," said the vampire simply. Stefan was the one, this time, to walk forward, place a firm hand on the vampire's shoulder, and twist the stake in more, coaxing a groan out of the tortured vampire's lips. He gasped out, "The Grimoire."

"Where is it?" Damon pushed.

Again, Stefan pushed in the stake, and again, the vampire gasped out of pain. Elena turned her head, mortified. "Check…the journal," the vampire gasped. "The journal. Use Jonathan's journal. Jonathan Gilbert's."

Damon straightened off of his knees, and Stefan, though reluctant, asked the next question. "Who else is working with you?"

Silence.

"Who else is there?" Damon shouted. When the vampire didn't respond, Claire stepped forward and sighed.

"I would _really _rather not kick you again but—"

"No," gasped the pleading, near-death vampire. "You're going to have to kill me," he said simply.

Claire bent down to face the vampire in the eyes. "Tell me who you're working with," she ordered, but the vampire shook his head. Her eyes drifted up to Damon's and Stefan's, and she rose from her knees. Stefan was the one who placed a hand on the vampire's shoulder again, ripped the stake out, and then impaled it right this time so that it pierced the vampire's heart.

The vampire gurgled, Stefan twisted the stake, and he gasped to the floor, turning desiccated. Elena's gasps and pants were now audible and frightened behind them, but all of the vampires in the room did not speak.

"W-What do we—how are you going find the others now?" Elena asked frantically, not accepting the sight of death in front of her.

Damon turned his head towards her and shook his head. "He had to die."

"But…" Elena trailed off, and Stefan answered her this time.

"Elena," he spoke softly. "He's been invited in."

That was all it took for Elena to understand, and a silence crashed over the band of vampires and their additional human. It was when a sound appeared outside that they all were weary. Damon and Claire both turned their heads sharply to the sound, and Stefan spoke to them. "Go. I've got this."

Almost immediately, both Claire and Damon went outside. Damon wasted no time with human speed once he saw the odd history teacher roaming the halls. The blonde vampire opened her mouth to protest, but Damon flashed in front of Alaric and he gasped.

Clearing his throat, Alaric spoke softly, "Hey."

"What were you doing?" Damon demanded as Claire walked up to the two of them, standing by the side. His voice was icy cold and suspicious. The compulsion was taking effect.

"Looking for Ms. Hilden," Alaric said in a monotone, his back straight. Damon began his compulsion harder now, searching for answers.

"Why are you in Mystic Falls?"

"Damon, is this really—?"

Alaric, who was forced to answer the question, interrupted Claire. "I got a job as a teacher."

"Do you know what I am?" insisted Damon.

"You're my student's brother."

"Is everything you're telling me the truth?"

"Yes."

"Then forget we had this conversation." He tore his eyes from Alaric's and looked at Claire, who was just intrigued. She felt like something was wrong, but Damon just patted Alaric's shoulder. "Come on, Claire. Let's go."

He and Claire rushed off, not once realizing that the history teacher was clenching vervain in his fist.

"Damon," she rushed out as he violently walked throughout the hallways. "Damon! Stop." She reached out and grabbed his arm tightly, spinning him around to face her. "What _was _that back there? The tomb? Katherine? I thought you were done with that. Bree said there was no other way."

"Well, obviously, there _is_," Damon spat at her. She removed her hand from his arm and tensed. "You know, you're just lucky vampires can't compel vampires. Otherwise, I would compel you right now to tell me what you're hiding."

"Why do I have to be hiding something?" Claire snapped, her tone angry and icy. "If anything, _you're _the one that's hiding something! You're always hiding something!"

"_You _were the one who wanted this arrangement," Damon snapped, walking forward. "It seems _highly _unlikely you want to cut ties."

"You're ridiculous," she snapped again, her eyes cold. "You're making a mountain out of a molehill, Damon! Is it so wrong of me to want to stop going behind my best friend's back? Or can you just not accept the fact that I don't find you attractive anymore?"

"Now that's a lie."

Claire scoffed. "I'm not having this conversation with your self-consumed ass. I'll go check on Elena and Stefan." She tried to walk away, but this time, Damon was the one that pulled her back.

"I _will _find out what you're up to," he warned her, his eyes dead serious. She just stared at him, but then jerked her arm back violently, turned on her heel, and walked away.

* * *

"I need to talk to you," Stefan said as he restrained Claire from leaving Elena's porch. He was going to spend the night with Elena just in case, but he needed to talk to his friend first.

"Yeah?" she questioned, turning back to him. Her thoughts were clouded with things she didn't want in there—things involving Damon. How _dare _he think that she was so wrapped up around him? If she wanted, she could easily pull the plug. She did the first time, and she could do it much faster now. He was just being a sore loser.

"I made a deal with Damon." _Oh, great, _Claire thought to herself bitterly. "He wants to get Katherine out of the tomb and…I figured, the best way to get Damon to trust me was to help him."

Claire crossed her arms at Stefan and shook his head. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do here, Stefan, but—"

"Just…listen to me for a second," Stefan said, holding up his hands. Claire obeyed him, nodding for him to continue. "Look, I know the _last _thing you want is Katherine to be out of that tomb and…to be honest, it's the last thing I want, to. That's why I lied." Claire stiffened, realizing. "I'm letting Damon believe that he can trust me, but…I don't want anyone out of that tomb, Claire. Especially not Katherine. She'll kill you the first chance she gets, no matter what I ask of her. And those twenty six other vampires aren't a risk I'm willing to take."

Claire inhaled. "Look at you, Stefan. All devious." But she didn't smile. Stefan nodded at her, but they both knew what they were doing and how risky it was. "I'll help you. Whatever you want, you know I don't want her out of there."

Stefan nodded. "That's…kind of what I needed to talk to you about." Claire raised an eyebrow in prompt. "Damon told me that he's skeptical of your return." Claire scoffed, just shaking her head in sheer amazement at the persistency of Damon Salvatore. "You know I don't believe him. He's just bitter when it comes to you. But, anyways, I need you to help me…and in order to do that; I need you to talk to Damon. I need you to get him to trust you. Bad-mouth him, be nice to him, just do whatever you need to so that you can get any information he won't give me."

Claire was taken back at his proposal. "Stefan, he hates me. He'll probably tell me less than he tells you."

Stefan shook his head. "You were his friend once, Claire," he retorted, his smile twinged in sadness. "You can try it again, can't you? Or…at least, _attempt _it? Make peace? For me?"

Stefan's expression overtook Claire. He was so hopeful…so naïve. Damon Salvatore would laugh her out the door if she wanted to be friends with him.

Then the thought crossed her mind and she gagged in her mouth. There was something that Damon Salvatore wanted from her that Stefan wasn't aware of. Something that she'd been denying him of for the last few days.

Clearing her throat, Claire mumbled, "I'll handle it." Her promise made Stefan smile, and he let her disappear off into the night, where she later turned up at the Salvatore house. Damon was somewhere off upstairs, and she knew he could hear her come in. She poured herself glass upon glass of bourbon, realizing that she needed to be at least _buzzed _to go upstairs and do what Stefan was asking her to do…indirectly. Really, Stefan was as oblivious to what she needed to do then the next hopeful vampire, but _she _knew what it would take to get back in Damon's good graces again.

That's why she rapped three times on the door, and waited for Damon to answer. He saw her in front of him, still dressed in her costume, but he, on the other hand, had stripped his leather jacket and was just about ready to strip the rest of his clothing. "Need something?" he almost barked.

She nodded, her eyes cloudy and desperate. Damon could see straight through them. "Shut up," she growled and barged into the room, backing Damon up so she could slam the door behind her. Damon was clearly amused and pleased with her arrival, and he waited for her. "You were right."

Damon smirked. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Just _shut up_," she pleaded desperately, but Damon wouldn't take it. With an exaggerated groan, she just reached forward and pulled his neck towards hers, and he, without hesitation, flashed forward so that he could show her he understood. Her back hit the door, and they were inches apart. Damon's smirk was evident before he ducked his head, his lips skimming over the skin of her neck and she moaned through the feeling of intoxication regarding the eons of alcohol she'd had. Her hands gripped him closer, almost clawing at his shirt, and she moved them so that they began to slide down the sides of his torso and towards the hem of the plain black t-shirt.

His lips were at her ear when he spoke, "I _told _you, Claire, I'm _irresistible. _It was only a matter of time." Damon's fingers traveled to her tied-up hair, and he teasingly pulled one of the ends so that the knot untied itself. She watched his expression as he painstakingly removed the ribbon and it fell to the floor, letting Claire's soft, glowing hair now spill in slight curls over her shoulders.

Claire growled, and she didn't waste another second before kicking her legs, moving them from the door so that they backed up closer to his bed. Her hands found the hem of his shirt, gripped it tightly, and forced it upwards. Damon held his hands up so that the shirt was easily taken off of his body and thrown onto the floor. "If I hear so much as _one _more 'I told you so' out of your mouth, I'm out of this room that _very _instant."

"And then you'll be right back at it again," he retorted, laughing against her hands that skimmed down the length of his chest and pushed so that he fell back down on the bed. The mattress shuddered beneath him, but she wasted no more time. With a flip of her hair, she braced herself to gain control. The entire time she spent climbing on top of him, Claire thought of how this could be used. She needed to get him to spill her secrets to her, and this was the way to do it. No matter how much she wanted to stay away from him, there was something always pulling her back. Oddly enough, this time, it was Stefan.

Damon groaned when she bent down, her back arching, and she kissed down his bare chest, her hands getting a feel for his muscles. Her eyes drifted up to see him close his eyes, and she smirked to herself, realizing that she was accomplishing what she wanted.

But there was something she wanted to ask first.

"Worst thing I've ever done to you?" she said suddenly, removing her lips from her skin just as they neared his hipbones. Damon opened his eyes to meet hers, and though her lips were removed, she kept her hands on his chest for support.

"What?" he breathed out, shaking his head against the bed.

She nodded at him, prompting him to answer. "Tell me. What's the worst thing I ever did to you?"

Damon stared at her, confused for a split moment. He propped himself up on his elbows so that he was able to fully stare into her eyes to determine the seriousness. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I've always wondered. I've done a lot of crap to you. I can remember _my _favorite, but…well, obviously, I don't know yours."

Damon studied her, as if inspecting her for falseness in her attempts. She didn't once breathe wrong, for she was afraid he'd notice if she even took in the sharpest breath. It was a good thing vampires were excellent liars.

"You sure you want to know?" She nodded, and he shifted underneath of her, pulling her with him so that he was sitting straight and she was straddling his hips, one knee on each side. His eyes scanned her body as he responded. "It was summertime, I'd just come back from the war, you were engaged to Christopher Fell, and the week that I came back, you came out into town with him in a…very _revealing _corset dress that drove me insane." His eyes drifted up to meet hers. She was surprised, to say the least. He thought she would mention something else—burning his record collection on fire or something like that. Instead, it was this? "You tortured me, Claire, and for that…"

His hands went up to her restricting top, and she didn't expect what came next. Damon flipped them over so that her body was pinned against the mattress, and he completely shredded her top so that it was torn in scraps, and he threw it on the floor. An unexpected gasp escaped her mouth, and then she laughed, feeling the effects of the alcohol, Damon's confession, his maneuver, and his pleased expression at the sight of her half-naked in front of him. It was no longer her turn for control when his lips began to attack _her _body next; and there was no talking—just like always.

* * *

**Mystic Falls, 1864**

_Damon and Stefan were walking the streets of the town when Stefan spotted someone in his vision and shouted a name that Damon wasn't very fond of. He immediately jerked his name at Stefan's shout of, "Clarissa!" _

_Damon watched as Clarissa jerked her head up and looked around, looking for the voice that called out her name. She had changed from the last time he'd seen her—before he was enlisted into the war. He'd been back a few days now, but he hadn't seen her or heard about her since his return. After all, he was too preoccupied with the new tenant in the Salvatore house to notice. _

_After all, she was the one that had ruined everything between them. And she was the one who decided to befriend his brother and break his father's drinking glass as retaliation for something he didn't do. _

_Stefan turned to his brother sharply. "Please be kind, brother. She's my friend, and I would like you both to be accepting of each other." _

_Damon's eyes weren't focused on his brother, because he was now focused on Clarissa. Like he'd noticed, she had changed ever since he'd left. She was…more beautiful, somehow. She'd grown a few inches in height, shrunk a few inches in waist size, and had better taste in corsets—something that he was now beginning to hate. This moment, this exact moment, Damon Salvatore was very…_angry _with Clarissa for not letting him do what he wanted with her. He was in control on the outside, but on the inside, there was one thing he wanted and one thing he wanted only—her. _

"_I'll…try, brother," Damon said, his voice strained. Stefan smiled to himself, but it was when Damon saw Clarissa smile at his brother that his heart began to pound violently. Her smile, it was bright and mature…so unlike when he'd left. He was regretting every decision he had ever made. _

_Until someone came up behind her and clutched her hand in his. _

_Damon growled to his brother beside him, trying to protect his voice from his emotions, "What is she doing with Christopher Fell?"_

_Stefan turned to Damon, confused. "You hadn't heard, brother?" he asked, and Damon just looked at his brother for him to continue. "After your falling out, Marianne and Edward had to search for someone else for Clarissa. They chose Thomas and Honoria's son, Christopher Fell, to be her new husband." He turned to Clarissa and Christopher, who were making their way over to them now. Damon felt his heart break in pieces and rage begin to coat his veins. As if it weren't bad enough that she was getting married, but to Christopher Fell? Besides his brother, Christopher Fell was one of Damon's closest friends. To be fair, he didn't know that they kissed; no one knew that. But, it was still a betrayal on so many levels. "They were announced to be married last week. She seems to be really happy with him." _

"_Good morning, Stefan," Clarissa chirped as she walked over to him with Christopher by her side, giving a polite smile to Stefan. _

"_Clarissa," Stefan returned, giving her an equally bright smile. Clarissa, hesitant, turned towards Damon and cleared her throat. _

"_Damon." _

_Damon's heart broke in a million pieces, and his desire intensified by ten times seeing her up close. She wore her hair down and loose so that it spilled over the tight corset, as if torturing him in a way that he did not care to be tortured with. Beside her, Christopher nodded curtly to Damon. "Mr. Salvatore," he greeted. _

"_Clarissa," Damon said smoothly, his voice icy. Beside him, Stefan shut his eyes and basked in the pain that came along with his brother's attitude. "Christopher. I've just now learned of your engagement." Damon's eyes moved to Clarissa, who winced in the slightest. "I guess a congratulations is in order." _

"_Yes, it is, isn't it?" There was no doubt in Damon's mind that Christopher was speaking nasty things to him in his own brain. After all, Damon and Clarissa were the ones who were supposed to be married first, but after their falling out, their parents decided that it wouldn't happen. The argument in which their parents walked into had gotten so heated, they had to peel each other off of the other. "Clarissa and I are supposed to be married by spring of next year." He said nothing about Damon's invitation, and Damon suspected that he had none. _

"_Well, isn't that wonderful," Damon almost spat. Clarissa tensed beside her fiancé, and Damon's eyes roamed over her for a quick second. "My apologies, but if you'll excuse me." Damon turned to his brother. "Stefan, I will meet you at the marketplace." _

_Stefan, though angry at his brother's false promise to be on his best behavior, nodded and watched as Damon, with one lingering glance to the blonde vision before him, brushed past her and walked away without a single following word._

* * *

**So, Claire was engaged to Christopher Fell. The actor that portrays him is on my profile, like all of the others. Fair warning, we haven't met Hallie yet and we won't for a while. I'm just planning ahead for the future. **

**Okay, so that's it for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed! Tell me what you think in a review!**

_**Love, **_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_


	5. Children of the Damned

**Hey, everyone! Sorry it's been a while since my last update, finals have been a little tough. But they're over now and I've got some free time to write. Next update will be Double Vision, sorry for all of those who have been waiting for that. Anyways, hope you all enjoy this chapter! Review when you're finished if you can!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Children of the Damned**

**Mystic Falls, 1864**

_Stefan and Clarissa walked the streets of the brightly lit town square, arm in arm, laughing over memories that just felt like yesterday. Clarissa noticed that Stefan's mood had lately been heavily increased, and she had her own suspicions as to who was the cause of this. _

"_So," she began with a sigh. "This…Katherine Pierce. Am I mistaken or have you and your brother become quite taken with her?" _

_Stefan turned his head to glance at her in just the slightest as the two friends leisurely walked. "She's…wonderful, Clarissa." The female just tilted her head in a sort of disbelieving manner. "Really. You two would get along nicely." _

"_I highly doubt it." She pulled them to a stop and looked her best friend in the eyes. "I'm worried for you, Stefan. You are aware that Miss Pierce is toying with both you and your brother, correct?" _

_Stefan raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you begin to care about Damon again?" _

_Clarissa stopped at the question, and her eyes drifted to the side to see the very subject of the dreaded question standing just a few yards away with Miss Katherine by his side. When she turned back to Stefan, she gave him a smile. "I haven't, Stefan. I am merely concerned for _your _safety." She paused. "I have begun to see a change in you that I never thought I'd see." _

_Stefan's smile brightened at the question, though it was a dark subject that Clarissa was trying to touch on. "Clarissa, that's happiness." His smile forced one out of hers, but she was so skeptical of Katherine Pierce that it was hard to fake happiness for her friend. "Much like yours with Christopher." _

_Her heart sank in her chest. Christopher Fell, her fiancé. The future panned out in her head between them and, quite frankly, she saw herself unhappy. But Christopher was whom her parents wanted her to marry, and so then it'd be._

"_Yes." Her voice was merely a whisper. "Your happiness is…much like mine, Stefan." _

* * *

There was a rapping sound on her door that brought Claire out of her much needed sleep, considering the track record of this town in such short time. She groaned loudly, trying to tell whomever it was at the door to leave, but it was more than persistent. Claire tried to ignore it, refusing to give into the aggressive way of waking her up. Sure enough, the knocking ceased, and she smiled to herself with closed eyes and turned on her side, clutching the sheets around her.

It was when she sensed another person in her bed that she opened her eyes to find them pouring right into Damon's. Immediately, she jumped up.

"Damon!" she shouted at him, pulling the sheet around her tighter. But his body weight prevented the sheet from covering anything above her camisole-covered torso, but it was a good thing that Damon had been on the outside of the sheet. Though she had decent clothing on top, underneath the sheet, she had nothing but a pair of boyshorts on. "What the _hell _are you doing in here?"

Damon shrugged beside her. "You didn't answer the door."

"Yeah. I don't know if you know this, but that's the international sign of _leave me alone_," she retorted, pulling herself up on her knees and running a hand through her hair. She looked back at Damon, who just smirked. "Okay, quick question: _why_ are you still in my bed?"

For safety precautions, of course, Claire had sent herself back to her bedroom after being with Damon—and it was a good thing, too. Stefan and Elena had decided to come back to the boarding house and spend the night there. She ran into them getting an evening glass of bourbon and then she went back up to her room and slept off the last couple hours. However, Damon, the persistent bastard, had obviously invaded her solitude.

"Well, _I _thought we could—"

"I'm going to stop you right there." She held up a hand for him to see and listened. Elena and Stefan were awake, she realized, and relayed this to Damon. "Stefan and Elena are up. He'll hear."

Damon frowned. "I was going to say, I thought we could work together to figure out who the other vampires are in this town," he admitted, causing her to fall silent. "But, I mean, if we're talking about that—"

"Hold on a second. Who says I'm helping _you _with anything? All you want is to get into that tomb."

Damon shrugged. "Yeah. But Stefan agreed to help me, and since you and Stef are joined at the hip…" Claire raised an eyebrow in prompt, and Damon sighed. "Whatever. You want to be boring, be boring. I put Stefan and Elena on Gilbert Journal duty. You can help them." With that, he swung his legs off of the other side of her bed and stood up. Claire watched as he walked around the bed, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"You know, now it's _my _turn to be skeptical of you." Damon turned around at her with a puzzled expression. She continued without hesitation, "What are _you _up to? You were so insistent upon getting revenge on this town. You expect me to believe all you want is Katherine now?" It would've been a shock to Damon that she learned this, but she managed to get him to talk about it in the midst of their fun while Stefan and Elena were gone the night before.

Damon stared at her for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah. I expect you to believe that." She scoffed, but he continued. "Don't act like I'm not doing this for you, either. Once I get Katherine back, I'm gone, and you'll never have to deal with me again."

"Oh, so bringing Katherine back so she could kill me _again _is completely for my benefit, right?"

This time, Damon shook his head. "I told you I'd keep her away." He moved towards the door. "I meant it."

In an instant, he was gone, and Claire was left to get dressed. In no time at all, she was downstairs, where she met Stefan and Elena who were conversing in the parlor with each other. "Where's Damon?" Claire asked, coming up to the threshold and leaning against it.

"He went down to the basement," Stefan told her, to which Claire nodded in understanding. "So…you ready?"

Claire raised an eyebrow as Stefan and Elena came towards her. "For what?"

"Damon put us on journal duty," Elena said with certain distaste. "Stefan and I are just about to go to my house and see if we can dig it up."

Stefan spoke next, "Are you coming?"

Claire looked towards the basement and then back at Stefan with a nod. "Yeah, I guess. Let's go."

It didn't take long for them all to get back to Elena's house, where she immediately pulled out several boxes and began to rummage through them. Stefan watched as Elena searched through Jonathan Gilbert's things, and Claire was the one who got seconds on the interesting items.

"Who knew the Gilberts were such pack rats?" she muttered to herself with a shrug as she put down a book that looked like it was from before she was born.

Elena sighed worriedly. "Do you think Damon really believes us?" she asked, making it an open question to both vampires. "That we're all trying to help him?"

Claire snorted. "Damon the Skeptic? Hell no."

Stefan sort of agreed with her statement, but put it in a nicer way. "I…don't think Damon really knows what to believe. Trust isn't something that naturally comes to him. Hence…" Stefan gestured towards Claire.

"Damon the Skeptic," she finished off, giving Elena a small smile. But Claire could see right through the human—she was sensing a feeling of compassion towards Damon that _oozed _out of Elena.

"You know," Elena started, "I really think that Damon believes that everything that he's done, every move that's he's made, he's done for love."

Claire shook his head. "No, Elena, Damon…" How did she even begin to describe Damon's ways of affection. "Damon doesn't…_know _what love is. He knows what infatuation is. He knows what obligation is. Love is something that Damon hasn't fully…grasped yet."

Elena looked up at the blonde vampire sitting across from her. "Have you ever been in love?" she asked, fishing for something that she knew Claire wasn't going to give her if she asked directly.

It was a good thing Clarissa King had a knack for picking out fishing statements. "Aw, who needs to be in love when you've got Stefan Salvatore as your best friend?" She evaded the question, throwing a glance to Stefan, who rolled his eyes playfully.

"I think _you're _the one who hasn't grasped the concept of love, Claire. I mean…how many boyfriends have you had over the decades?" Claire shrugged simply at Stefan's question. "Yeah. And let's not forget JFK."

She groaned. "What is with everyone bringing him up? It was a fling! Sue me, he was our best-looking president. To be honest, if I wasn't here right now, I'd probably be making a move on Prince William." Claire looked over at Elena. "But, there's a difference between me and Damon. I know _how _to love, I just choose to…_not _fall in it," she confessed as she picked at the book beside her. "Damon falls head first. It's not healthy."

Elena sighed. "Well, I think it's twisted…sure, but it's kind of sad," she said, her voice compassionate and despaired.

Stefan was the one that answered this time. "There are other ways to get what you want," he explained. "You don't have to kill people. Damon has no regard for human life. He enjoys inflicting pain on others." Claire thought that Stefan's statement might be taken a _little _too far, but she had seen the way he was after Damon left him. It broke his heart. "For a hundred and forty-five years, every single time that I have let my guard down and let Damon back into my life, he's done something to make me regret that. I'm not going to make that mistake again."

"So what do you think will happen if the tomb gets opened and Damon gets Katherine back?" Elena asked, this being a valid question. Claire let Stefan explain this one.

"I think that, no matter what Damon promises, a lot of people will die."

Elena straightened and exhaled, realizing quickly what they had to do to stop Stefan's brother. They had to find the journal. She reached forward and grabbed the first thing she saw in the box in front of her, and Claire looked over her shoulder.

"That's Jonathan Gilbert," she noticed, and was aware of Stefan now shuffling to get over to them.

Elena reached forward, setting the picture down, and grabbed a box with a confused expression. "What's this?" she asked before opening the lid of the wooden box. Stefan, Elena, and Claire all peered inside to see a muzzle. Stefan and Claire straightened, and they threw suspicious glances towards each other.

"What are you guys doing?" The three of them were interrupted when Jeremy, Elena's brother, came into the kitchen to see two people he knew and one girl he didn't. Elena shut the box in her hand and put it back in the cardboard one in front of her.

"Hey. Just…um. Going through some stuff. Feeling sentimental. Dad had this whole family journal from years ago. I thought I'd dig it up," Elena tried to make it sound nonchalant, and it worked.

Jeremy hopped up on the counter. "Jonathan Gilbert's journal?"

Elena tilted her head. "Yeah, what do you know about it?"

"I just did a history report on it," he responded immediately.

"Oh!" Elena exclaimed, still keeping her voice calm. "So…where is it now?"

"I gave it to Mister Saltzman. He wanted to see it." Elena and Stefan looked at each other and Claire sighed. But Jeremy was confused as to what a random woman was doing in his kitchen with his sister and her boyfriend. "Um…"

Elena looked back at Jeremy and then to where he was looking, and she inhaled sharply. "Oh. Sorry, Jeremy, this is Stefan's friend, Claire. Claire, this is my brother Jeremy." She turned back to Jeremy and made an excuse. "We, uh...we just all made plans to hang out today." Jeremy nodded once, and things were silent for a moment before Stefan looked at Claire.

"Well, uh…we've got to go back to the house, don't we?"

"Yep," Claire said, giving Jeremy a small, awkward smile. "Uh, yeah, definitely. Nice to meet you Jeremy." He just nodded again and Elena got up from her chair to walk Stefan and Claire to the door, where they made their plans to get the journal from the shady history teacher.

* * *

Stefan wanted Elena to stay back at the house while he and Claire went to get the journal, and she did. Claire followed Stefan through the hallways of the school cryptically, using their vampire stealth to get into Alaric's classroom. The two of them didn't have to do any distracting, for the History teacher was already out of the classroom by the time they'd arrived. To their surprise, though, the journal was nowhere in sight.

It was when Claire heard the sound of something being fired that she whipped around and caught the wooden stake in her hand inches before it touched her heart. Before them stood the History teacher with a secret, and she was pissed to say the least.

Alaric hastily began to reload his weapon, but Claire just chucked the wooden stake to the side.

"_Not. Cool," _she warned before flashing behind the teacher, who was having trouble with his device. He turned to face her with a gasp, and she gave him sickeningly sweet smile. "I _knew _there was something off about you." She grabbed the weaponry from the teacher without using an unnecessary amount of effort to get it.

"Claire, take it easy," Stefan warned in front of her, but she pushed the teacher to the side so that he crashed into a bunch of desks. The timid human desperately grasped at the chairs to sit down. "Claire…"

"Relax, Stefan," she said, sauntering forward. "I won't hurt the guy. I just want to know what a boring high school History teacher is doing shooting out wooden stakes at the first person he sees." She shrugged. "Granted, _yes. _It wasn't without cause, but it _still _pisses me off," the female vampire sung.

Stefan walked up to her and gently grabbed the weaponry from her hand. He studied it closely and then looked at Alaric.

"What is this?" he asked. "Compressed air?" Alaric didn't say a word. "Did you make it yourself?" Again, silence. "Who are you?" Nothing but the sound of the heat radiating from the school's filters. "Look, we're not going to hurt you."

"Unless you try to kill me again. Then I'll hurt you," Claire added and watched as Stefan passed the weapon back to Alaric with caution. He took Claire's arm and helped her over to one of the desks, where he let her sit in the chair while he was placed on the actual desk part.

"Now," Stefan began, "Who are you?" he asked again.

"I'm a teacher," Alaric responded. Claire scoffed.

"You're not _seriously _trying to lie to us right now, are you? I'm warning you, I don't want to do this the hard way, but you _did _just try to turn me into a kebab, so…" she trailed off, pursing her lips. "Choice is yours, buddy."

Alaric was silent for a moment, but then he inhaled sharply and gave in. "I'm also a historian. And while researching Virginia, I—I made a few discoveries about your town."

"So you show up like Van Helsing?" Stefan questioned in disbelief. "Come on. Tell us the truth."

Realizing that he wouldn't get out of this until he gave the vampires what they wanted, Alaric chuckled softly, "My wife was a paranormal psychologist. She spent her life researching paranormal activity in this area." _Now _it made sense. "It was her work that lead me here."

"Where's your wife?" Stefan asked.

"Dead," answered Alaric. "A vampire killed her."

Claire snorted. "Figures. Vampire hunting History teacher out for revenge for a dead loved one. This story never gets tiring, does it?" She sighed and crossed her legs, putting her head on her hand. "All right, so tell us where the Gilbert Journal is."

"What do you want with it?"

"Where is it?" Stefan repeated the question out of his friend's mouth, his voice relentless. Claire approved of the badass-Stefan form. It suited him sometimes.

"It's on my desk," Alaric answered, as if it were obvious. Claire's eyes drifted to the desk and back to Alaric.

"This isn't a game, Van Helsing," she taunted. "It's not on the desk. Tell us where you put it."

Alaric looked back at the desk, himself, and then turned to both the vampires that were waiting for an answer. All he could say was, "It _was _on my desk."

Before the conversation could progress, there was a pinging sound in Stefan's pocket. All talk was halted for a moment when Stefan reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone to see a text message from Elena. Stefan sighed, causing Claire to raise her eyebrows and ask, "What is it?"

"Damon," Stefan said simply, turning his head to Claire. "Apparently, he just…showed up at Elena's house and...is making dinner."

"Damon being domestic?" Claire wrinkled her nose. "Nope. I can't see it." Stefan looked over at her with hopeful eyes, and she quickly caught on. She groaned, "Stefan…come on…"

"I'm worried," he defended himself. "You know Damon can be…persuasive. And I'll handle…things here." Stefan's eyes drifted up to Alaric, who just sat in his seat quietly.

Claire looked over at the History teacher and grumbled, "Too bad. It was much more fun here." She sighed and straightened, pointing a finger at Stefan. "You owe me. Big time."

* * *

Elena answered the doorbell as promptly as it was rung, and she was relieved to find that it was Claire standing at the doorstep. She would've been happy with either Claire or Stefan, she just didn't feel comfortable with Damon in her house, sharing her food, and conversing with her family like they were his own. Elena mouthed a "thank you" right when Claire crossed the threshold, and Claire nodded as they began to walk to the kitchen to find Damon cooking sauce by the stove. He picked up a wooden spoonful to taste it, and then basked in his own cooking skills. He was just about to throw the spoon back in when Claire flashed to him and caught the wooden spoon.

"Okay, _ew_," she complained, taking the spoon out and clutching it in her hand. Damon gave her a taunting smile. "That's like spitting in the whole meal."

Damon sighed and turned to Elena. "You invited her?" Elena shrugged and began to set the plates that she had just started to arrange before Claire walked in. Damon looked back at the blonde vampire. "Are you going to be breathing down my neck the entire time I'm cooking?"

"Hey, if I'm eating anything _you're _cooking, you can bet your ass I'll make sure you didn't spit in my dish." She gave him a sour smile before moving to the sink, where she placed the wooden spoon down in it and Damon scowered the kitchen drawers for another one.

Claire walked over to Elena next, who was already annoyed by Damon's presence. She relieved the human of her duties, to which Elena was grateful, and the teenager went upstairs to stay as far away from Damon as possible so she didn't spill the beans. Damon walked over to the kitchen as Claire walked back to the counters, searching through it for the glasses, and when she came back with all five, she wasn't surprised to find that Damon brushed against her, trapping her body in between him and the counter behind her.

"Whoa!" He smirked. "Mm."

Claire shook her head and chuckled to herself as she moved past him.

"Cute," she said pointedly. "But stop doing that."

"Doing _what_?" Damon asked in an offended tone. She didn't bother with his childish games but responded in an uninterested tone to discourage him.

"You know what. That move was deliberate."

"Well, yeah, I was…_deliberately _trying to get to the sink." She didn't turn to face him, but Claire chuckled under her breath as she continued to set the table. Damon's voice was evident behind her. "Speaking of Stefan, where is he? I thought he'd be with you."

Claire sighed and circled the table, setting down the glasses. "He'll be here soon, Damon. He just had a few…things to take care of."

"What kind of things?"

"Things. He'll explain when he gets back."

The two of them went silent after this, and Damon stirred his sauce on the stove. Without looking back at her, he spoke again. "Is it real?"

Claire let out an exhausted sigh. "You're going to have to be more specific." She walked over to the drawers and picked through them until she found the silverware. Damon spoke while she picked out the utensils she needed.

"This…renewed sense of brotherhood," Damon clarified, peering back at her. "Can I trust him?"

His voice was serious this time, and she saw a change that she'd never seen before. Something was in Damon's eyes…almost as if he was hoping she'd tell him that he could trust his brother again. She remembered, very distinctly, how it used to be between the two of them before their own falling out. It seemed that every relationship Damon had involved himself in—romantically or brotherly—fell through the cracks. The point Elena had made earlier in the day had raced back into her mind, but she pushed it out immediately. The last thing she wanted to feel for Damon Salvatore was _pity_.

She tried to keep herself in check, making sure she didn't slip and sound too nice to him. "Yes, Damon, you can trust him. I, however, am not sure that _he _can trust _you_."

Claire turned back to the table to continue placing the items at each set, and it was no surprise to her that he was standing behind her just as she turned around. Damon was close to her—perhaps _too _close. "Can I trust him?" he repeated his question, his eyes staring hardly into hers.

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Vampires can't compel vampires, Damon. You know that. Knock it off."

"I wasn't _compelling _you," he retorted, incredulous. "I'm not an idiot, Claire. I just want you to answer me. All…past aside, I need to trust you right now." She straightened, and his eyes wandered across her features. "Answer me. Honestly. Can I trust him?"

Claire sighed at him, her hot breath almost mixing in with Damon's. "Damon, of course you can. He's your brother." She answered the question with a straight face, and she felt strangely terrible for lying. Maybe it wouldn't have been that hard if she was actually enemies with him like Stefan thought they were—but knowing what they did behind those closed doors, it made her feel terrible inside. Using Damon to veer him away from suspicion was a _terrible _thing to do, hatred or not.

Regardless, she put her emotions to the side and brushed past Damon to grab the napkins spewed out on the center isle.

"I know he's my brother," Damon retorted, spinning around to see her. "You _know _there was a time that I could trust him more than anyone."

"Of course." Claire scoffed, folding the napkins.

"There was a time when I trusted you more than him," Damon admitted, earning her attention. She glanced up at him to find him staring at her over by the table, but she just cleared her throat and shrugged.

"That was a long time ago."

"Yeah, and that's kind of my _point_." Frustrated with the topic, she put down the napkins and listened to him, looking back at the Salvatore to find him with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against one of the chairs in the kitchen. "You don't think that we could ever get back to that? Being friends again?"

She started at him incredulously and couldn't help the tiniest smile that slid onto her lips. "Are you saying that you _want _to be friends with me again, Damon?"

"I think that I'm getting Katherine back," Damon retorted, shrugging. "And that's going to require a change between us."

At this, she scoffed. "Wow. All right, so you just want to make sure I don't go seducing you at night." An amused smile twitched its way onto her lips and Damon copied it. "Well, you don't have to worry. I'm sure I'll find another boy toy to play with." Claire sighed deeply and returned to the napkins, but moved on from the topic at hand. "As for Stefan...all I'm trying to say is that you can trust _him _if you let him know that he can trust _you_." "

Damon raised his eyebrows. "You sound like you're lecturing me."

"Depends on if you _need _to be lectured," she countered, giving him a teasing glance. Damon scoffed, half-chuckling, half disinterested, and then he spoke again.

"I just want her back," he defended himself, causing Claire to straighten. "I'm _sure _you can at least understand that, all differences aside."

It was a hard thing to admit such understandings, but Claire didn't want to lie to him about this. There was already enough lying to go around for a century of hate. Plus, she'd seen Damon with Katherine back in eighteen sixty-four. The surge of jealousy was _still _there, even after all these years.

"Yeah. I get it. You'd walk through water for her. Jump through flames. Do anything. I understand."

Claire brushed past him with the table napkins in her hand, and she began to place them at the table. Damon's voice was in her ear right behind her, "Then _you _will understand what I will do if anyone gets in my way."

She didn't even turn around at him while scoffing, "That sounds like a threat."

"Maybe it is," he agreed, and she could feel the slight pads of his fingertips brush against her hip. "But, trust me when I say this, Claire. This is in your best interest, too."

She raised an eyebrow and forced herself to turn around. "What do you mean?" Claire asked, beyond confused. Damon's eyes poured into hers, and for a moment, time was completely lost. Neither one of them spoke a word, and Damon just let his eyes linger until a sad, almost hurt smile curved up on his lips that were barely inches from hers.

"Sauce is probably ready," he whispered and turned on his heel to go back to the stove, leaving the question unanswered.

* * *

Claire and Jenna had been introduced with Elena's interjection, and the three of them were in the kitchen after dinner while Jeremy and Damon were playing video games in the living room. Elena searched through more boxes with Claire and Jenna's help, but all Jenna seemed to be focused on was whispering about Damon's looks.

"He is _ridiculously _hot," Jenna exclaimed in a hushed tone that could still be heard by Damon. Elena immediately hushed her, and Damon's smile was painted elegantly across his lips at the compliment.

"Shh," Elena demanded. "Come on, Aunt Jenna."

"What?" Jenna shrugged harmlessly. "I'm simply stating a fact." She looked at Claire. "Seriously. You can't tell me you don't think he's hot."

"Oh, you're right. He's hot." Claire shrugged as well, earning a smile from Jenna. "But that doesn't change the fact that he's a raging _asshat_." She peered up at Jenna with a mischievous smile, knowing Damon could hear her.

Damon rolled his eyes on the couch, and the conversation was dropped with a chuckle from Elena's lips. Jenna moved on to asking about the box that Elena was digging through, "What are you doing with all this stuff?"

"I thought there might be something about my birth parents," Elena confessed, sighing as she closed the box.

Jenna swiveled on her heel. "Have you told Jeremy?"

"I will," Elena answered. "When the time is right. In the meantime, Claire's offered to help me find her." It was true; ever since the Georgia trip where Elena had learned about her situation, she had asked Stefan to help, who had asked Claire.

"Yeah, _not _much to go on in that department." The vampire sighed. "You'd be surprised how many women named Isobel live in a fifty mile radius. And that's not even taking into account if she moved or not…"

Jenna let out a heavy breath. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

The three women wanted to continue the conversation, but there was a ring at the doorbell, to which Elena realized quickly, "That's Stefan."

On the couch, Damon immediately jumped out of it and went to the door, earning a sign of distaste from Jeremy, who wasn't pleased with the fact that Damon up and left. Claire, Damon, and Elena all answered the door to see Stefan, who just sighed at the presence of his brother, but was relieved that Claire was there to help. "Well?" Damon prompted, and then Stefan told his brother about the fact that someone stole it—Stefan didn't figure out who. "Who took it?"

"I don't know," answered Stefan as the four of them went out on the porch together. Damon turned around and pointed at his brother suggestively.

"You know what, I _bet _it's that teacher. There's something _really _off about him…"

"No," Stefan answered immediately, happy that Claire hadn't once opened her mouth. "He doesn't know anything. Somebody got to him right before me."

"Who else knew it was there?" demanded Damon. Stefan turned his head inside at the one person who knew the answer to this question, and Damon quickly realized. Elena, however, wasn't so pleased with Damon's new plan.

"No. Damon, leave him out of it!"

"Why?" Damon protested in a high-pitched tone. "What's the big deal?"

"Damon!" Elena complained, but Damon wasn't listening to him. The two vampires and the human teenager followed the raven-haired vampire on a mission inside, where Damon sat next to Jeremy on the arm of the couch.

"So," he began sweetly. "I hear you found a _really _cool journal from back in the day. Who else did you show it to?"

"Huh?" Jeremy asked, confused, as he focused on his video game.

"Don't ask questions, just spill," Damon prompted, keeping his tone light. But, on the inside, everyone but Jeremy knew he was absolutely mad.

Jeremy turned to him and chuckled. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Jer, did you tell anyone other than Mr. Saltzman about Jonathan Gilbert's journal?" Elena asked, the question sounding harmless yet interrogative coming from his sister. Jeremy was obviously deeply confused on the couch, and quite annoyed, it seemed.

"Why is everybody so obsessed with that thing?"

"Who else did you tell?" Elena pushed.

Jeremy shrugged. "Just that girl, Anna."

Surprisingly, Damon knew what he was talking about. "The hot, weird one?"

"Yeah."

"Who's Anna?" Stefan asked. Damon turned around at his brother sharply.

"That's…what I wanna find out." The vampire turned back to Jeremy. "How do you know her?" Behind them, Elena's phone rang, and she immediately turned to go answer it. Meanwhile, Stefan, Damon, and Claire all stayed in the living room listening to Damon's interrogation.

"I just…know her," Jeremy answered. Thinking of something helpful, he added, "She wants me to meet her at the Grill tonight."

"Perfect!" Damon exclaimed. "I'll drive." He tilted his head. "Come on." Damon dragged Jeremy with him, and the confused teenager went along with him. Claire turned to walk out with Damon, but Stefan grabbed her arm back and they waited until Damon was outside to speak in a _hushed _tone so that Damon couldn't hear.

"Stefan, if we don't go with him—"

Stefan shook his head. "I've already got it," Stefan whispered, pulling out a roll of papers. "It seems our shady History teacher is actually pretty smart."

Claire felt bad about sending Damon on a wild goose chase, and his words echoed through her head: _"This is for your best interest, too." _She had no idea what it meant, but she wasn't willing to find out. Getting Katherine out was a risk that no one should be willing to take.

* * *

Elena had found the location of the Grimoire, and not a second after they'd found it, they headed out after it before Damon could figure it out. The three of them grabbed shovels from Elena's garage and wasted absolutely no time in getting over to the woods over by the original Salvatore mansion. There were no other gravestones; just Giuseppe's. While Elena pressured Stefan about the sureness of the location of this Grimoire, Claire set up around the grave so that they could start digging. Claire had her shovel, Stefan handed Elena hers, and then he gripped his own in his hand, broke ground, and they all began to dig up Giuseppe's grave.

Elena grew tired after a while, which was understandable. Stefan and Claire kept digging up the deep grave, and eventually, Claire sighed and stopped, putting her shovel in the dirt for just a moment. "Just so you know, Stefan, that's _two _favors you owe me after today."

Stefan laughed to himself. "I'll keep that in mind," he agreed, and Claire stopped for a moment while he slaved away.

Claire paused for a second, thinking over the past. "What do you think would've happened?" Stefan stopped digging for a moment to look up at her, confused. "If I was revealed as a vampire before they tried to burn them all in the church. I was just lucky Emily was on my side and made me a daylight ring against Katherine's wishes." She paused. "Do you think your father would've burned me in that church, too?"

Stefan leaned against his shovel. "I have no idea," he admitted truthfully. "It was one thing with Katherine…he just barely knew her. But, honestly, I don't know what he would've done. He watched you grow up."

Claire pursed her lips thinking about it. "Then again, he _was _the one that killed you and Damon, so…"

Stefan sighed. "Yeah. I'd say there's a pretty good chance you'd be in that tomb right now."

Claire let out a deep, frustrated sigh. "Your father's a pain, Stefan," she grumbled, and they resumed digging up the grave again. "Even after a hundred and seventy years."

She pulled out her shovel and thrust it into the dirt again, but this time, there was a thud sound. Elena peered over the grave with her flashlight, shining it down on both Claire and Stefan, who looked over the dirt and realized that they hit the coffin. Stefan immediately began to shift the dirt around with his shovel and, sure enough, a coffin door was evident. Both vampires threw their shovels on level ground and then bent down and to the side, using their strength to lift the coffin and pull it upright. Elena was gagging up on higher ground.

"Is that it?" she asked.

Stefan and Claire pulled open the grave and, sure enough, there was a book inside of it, right next to Giuseppe's skeletal body. A look of sadness crossed Stefan's eyes before he and Claire stood up in the grave, Elena bent down, and Stefan desperately ripped off the protective covering on the Grimoire and tossed it to the side. Sure enough, it was the book they were looking for. Emily's Grimoire.

A voice brought them all out of their increased intrigue, and the voice was one of which they were not happy to hear.

"Well, what do you know?" Elena, Stefan, and Claire all turned their heads and Elena stood up, raising her flashlight to come upon Damon's angered face. "This is an interesting turn of events," he spat.

Stefan climbed out of the grave and helped Claire, who brushed herself off while Stefan faced his brother head-on. "I can't let you bring her back," he said simply. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," agreed Damon, but his apology was for a different reason. "For thinking for even a _second _I could trust you."

This caused a spike in Stefan's anger. "Oh. You are not _capable _of trust. The fact that you're here means that you read the journal and you were planning on doing this yourself."

"Of course I was going to do it by myself, because the only one I _can _count on is _me_!" Damon shouted, causing Stefan to fall silent. "You made sure of that many years ago, Stefan." Deafening silence surrounded Giuseppe's grave, and Damon let his eyes wander towards Claire, who was just standing at the edge of the grave with no expression on her face.

"But you…" Damon's eyes were filled with betrayal and hurt, something she hadn't seen in a long time. He caught on his words. "You had me fooled," Damon admitted, nodding once. She felt herself grow confused and angry all at the same time. "I thought…for just a _second _that _maybe_, only _maybe_, we could finally put the past behind us once this was over."

Claire felt herself become suddenly ashamed. Damon's eyes were hot like fire, and they looked down upon her like they were reliving the past all over again. Like he'd just gotten his heart broken for the second time. But, she didn't let this bother her, because as a vampire, she needed to show him that she could stand up to his bullying. "You thought wrong," she said simply, trying not to let her voice break. "I can't let Katherine come back and destroy my life again."

"This isn't about _Katherine, _damn it!" Damon growled, his lips twitching with anger and hurt. She flinched in the slightest. "I thought I had a reason to trust you today. I _thought _that we could be friends again. But you _fool _people, Clarissa. You make them believe that you care when you don't." At the mention of this, she felt like she was about to crumble. She didn't _mean _to hurt Damon this way. She thought it would just be another thing to add to the list of things they'd done wrong to each other.

Stefan watched as his brother and his best friend were in the midst of an argument that he had never seen before—an argument that he didn't like. For a second, a split second, Stefan could see something in Damon's eyes. Something that he hadn't noticed before. Something that Stefan couldn't quite place a finger on quite yet. He didn't have a chance to when Damon turned to him.

"So what are you going to do now? Because if you try and destroy that"—Damon gestured to the Grimoire in his brother's hand—"I'll rip Elena's heart out without blinking."

"You won't kill her," Stefan retorted, shaking his head. But he hadn't thought of Damon's pride but only for his own, and Damon had something to prove. He flashed around and grabbed Elena by the neck, holding the human by her throat so that Elena gasped for air. There was nothing Stefan or Claire could do without Damon snapping Elena's neck in that very instant.

"I can do one better," Damon agreed, pulling up his sleeve and ripping into his wrist. Elena struggled against him, and then he pressed his blood to her mouth so it involuntarily flowed down her throat. "Give me the book, Stefan. Or I'm snapping her neck and you'll have a vampire girlfriend on your hands."

Stefan grew weak at this, and with a side glance to Claire, who could do nothing without Damon getting to Elena first, looked back at Damon with worried eyes. "Let her go first."

Damon dropped his hand from her mouth so that blood dripped down Elena's chin, but the sadistic vampire did not release his hold. "The book!" he snapped.

"I am not going to give this to you until she is standing next to me."

"The problem is, I no longer trust that you'll give it back!"

Stefan fell silent, and then he spoke clearly, "You just did the one thing that ensures that I will."

But Damon wouldn't give. He nodded his head for Stefan to return the book, and the younger brother stepped forward, the book outstretched in his hand. Slowly, he placed it down on the ground, and Damon released Elena slowly, pushing her over to Stefan. She was frightened beyond believe, and Stefan immediately grabbed Elena in his arms and flashed away. Claire was staring at Damon with hateful eyes, but he shamed away from her, walking over to grab the Grimoire.

"Was it worth it?" Damon peered up at her, and she just stared at him blankly. "I hope it was, Damon, because then ruining whatever bond you had with your brother again would be a complete waste."

She didn't say anything about herself. Damon could hate her all he wanted, it wouldn't change a thing. What she couldn't stand was Damon hurting Stefan over and over again, getting his brother's hopes up of actually being a family again. Stefan could tell Elena all he wanted about how Damon was a monster, but deep down, Stefan wanted his brother to be good, and Claire knew this. Damon knew it, too, he just refused to make it true. She didn't lecture him, she didn't hit him, she didn't say a single word past that.

Honestly, she hoped Damon got what he wanted. Because, without it, ruining everything would be for nothing.

* * *

Claire had gone back to the boarding house after leaving Damon at Giuseppe's grave. She realized all too quickly that the idea of friendship with Damon again as they'd talked about earlier was completely shot now. Not that it mattered to her, but she did wonder what it would've been like if her intentions had been pure. Honestly, though, what bothered her about this whole thing was that Damon gave her so much grief regarding her betrayal when Stefan had made an excellent point: Damon had come to Giuseppe's grave all alone, proving his own distrust towards them all. Damon Salvatore was such a hypocrite sometimes, it killed her.

Suddenly, there was a _beep _in her pocket as she poured herself a glass of bourbon in an empty household, seeing as Stefan was with Elena and Damon was off doing whatever the hell he wanted to do now that he was close to bringing Katherine back. After draining all the contents in her cup without stopping once, she slammed the glass back down on the counter and whipped out her phone, almost angrily. Claire was glad she'd set the fragile glass down when she realized what the beep was from.

Damon's text message was prominent on the screen of her cell phone.

**I know where it is. Meet me at my father's grave. **

He had sent the text message, she realized, to her and _only _her. Now was the time where she felt like a horrible person, despite the fact that she'd convinced herself she did this because Katherine could not be allowed to return to this world. She felt like complete and utter crap lying to Damon...betraying him. There was a time when she'd do anything for him.

The sound of a slammed door made her slip her phone back into her pocket and turn around to face Stefan, who bore a worried expression. He didn't even need to say the words for her to realize what was happening. Regardless, Stefan said them anyway.

"Elena's missing."

* * *

**So, I guess friendship is off the table for Damon and Claire; at least, for now it is. Anyways, hope you guys all enjoyed that chapter! I'm going to be kind of cycling through my updates now, so the last one updated will get updated next and blah, blah, blah, we all get the picture. But I'll update as soon as I get back around to this one. Review, please!**

_**Love, **_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_


	6. Fool Me Once

**Hey, everyone! I'm so grateful for all the feedback last chapter. I'm happy you're all enjoying the story. Unfortunately, things are going to start getting _really_ complicated _real_ soon so stay with me. ****Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Review at the end if you can, please! Flashbacks to return next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :) **

* * *

**Fool Me Once**

Over the past several hours, Claire and Stefan searched high and low in the town of Mystic Falls, trying to find Elena. Presumably, Anna, the vampire from 1864 who wanted to get into the tomb as well as Damon, had taken Elena in her home while Stefan was getting aspirin. But no matter where they searched both vampires had come up with the same conclusion: they needed someone else's help. Unfortunately, the person they needed help from really didn't like them all that much.

"Anna took Elena," Stefan announced as he barged into the study with Claire on his heels. Damon was on his favorite chair, looking over his precious Grimoire.

"Yeah, I got that from your six _hundred _voicemails."

"Damon, all night long, every single street in town, we've been searching," the younger brother confessed frantically. Damon didn't bother looking up from his reading selection at the two people who had just betrayed him less than twelve hours ago. "What if your blood hasn't passed out of her system?"

"Well, then at least you know you'll see her again," Damon said vindictively, still keeping his eyes glued onto the Grimoire. Stefan sat down on the couch beside Damon and looked at him desperately.

"Please," he begged. "What do you know?"

Damon said nothing, and at this, the blonde vampire in the room sighed heavily. "Damon, come on, this is gone too far. You tracked Anna down to find the location of the Grimoire, which means you know where she's staying. Tell us where we can find her."

She didn't bother with a "please" like Stefan had asked for. Though she felt so guilty for her betrayal, she didn't want Damon to see past her rough exterior. He was being stubborn and immature, and he wasn't deserving of beggary. Not from her.

Damon looked up at her and shook his head. "Nope." His eyes drifted towards Stefan. "You two can go. Really." He shot a smile to his brother and his brother's best friend and then dropped it sourly.

Claire scoffed at the sad case of Damon Salvatore and just shook her head. "Come on, Stefan. Let's go. He's hopeless."

She turned to walk away, but Stefan's deep, heavy sigh stopped her from leaving entirely. "You know…" Stefan began, straightening beside his brother. "All I can remember is hating you. There might've been a time that was different, but your _choices _have erased anything good about you."

Damon looked up from his Grimoire now, Stefan's confession capturing his full attention. Claire wanted to advise her friend to quit while he was ahead, but she didn't stop him. Instead, she listened as Stefan continued on painfully.

"But see, I also know that you have just as much reason to hate me. This all began with me. Katherine got taken away from you because of me," Stefan admitted slowly, his eyes full of regret and sorrow. A pain flickered behind Damon's eyelids, and Stefan dropped his gaze. "And I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," Damon chuckled softly with a forgiving smile. But he said no more, so Stefan moved on.

"So please," Stefan tried again, "just tell me what you know." The raven-haired vampire shifted in annoyance, and Stefan's voice turned completely as desperate as he was. "It's Elena, Damon. If you know something…tell me."

Claire wanted to stay silent, but she had a feeling that Damon was budging, just in the slightest. She stepped forward.

"Your problem is with us, Damon," she said softly, capturing his electric blue gaze. She tried not to raise her voice at him so that they could get what they wanted and be done with it. "Don't take this out on Elena. She could be in real danger with this." Her eyes locked with his, and a silent, unnoticed moment went between the two of them. After a moment of thought, Damon sighed, closed the Grimoire, and moved so that he was standing up. Stefan copied him, not to block his brother's way but to get to the same height.

"I mean this sincerely," Damon began, almost exhausted. His next words were slow and emotionless, despite the progress Claire and Stefan thought they were making. "I hope Elena dies."

Damon gave a slight pout, brushed past his brother, and without giving any unnecessary attention to the beautiful blonde in the room, left without anything else to say. If Claire thought he was worthy enough of a lecture, she would've gone after him, but instead, she shook her head at Stefan.

"We'll find her without him," she said, shrugging. "We have to." Stefan nodded, trying to accept his friend's words, but truth be told, Claire had no idea what promises she was making to him. "Try her again," Claire insisted, gesturing to Stefan's phone, and the vampire pulled his phone out and tried to call Elena again, hoping this time that she'd answer. He paced and paced, calling and calling, and, eventually, there was a sharp ringing sound, signaling an incoming call from Elena's cell phone.

"Elena," Stefan answered it immediately upon seeing the Caller ID. Claire straightened beside him, following the vampire as he came to a stop in his pacing. "Are you okay?"

"_She's fine," _said a different voice over the phone—certainly not Elena's voice. Anna's, of course. "_For now. Tell me you have the Grimoire and she'll stay fine." _

Stefan hesitated, but it was too late. His hesitation had given everything away, so he just said the one thing that he could. "I can get it."

"_Which means your brother has it," _Anna clarified for the both of them. _"And I have the witch. So one of you had better meet me in the very public town square in thirty minutes so we can safely discuss how fun it's going to be to work together." _

Once the call was ended, Claire's attention was diverted from the phone to the threshold of the study, where Damon was standing against it with a sadistic expression worn on his face.

"Go ahead," challenged the vampire as the two others turned around at him. "Grovel again. Oh, wait, no. I don't care," Damon said dully before straightening and walking out of the threshold.

With Damon's comment, it only made things worse, so a very angry Clarissa snarled and said to her best friend, "I'll be right back," before fleeing Stefan and following Damon out the threshold into the hallway.

"Don't bother," Damon sighed as he leisurely walked out of the study and down the hallway into the foyer. "Elena betrayed me just as much as you two did. Fact is, I don't care whether she lives or dies. Not my problem."

"Yeah, well _Stefan _is your problem," Claire retorted at him, walking as leisurely as he was. Damon responded just as uninterested and emotionless as before.

"Yes, Claire. He is my problem. A problem that I intend to make suffer in all ways I can. Just like I intend upon doing to you." The dark-haired vampire gave a careless shrug, but was pulled to the stop just as they reached the foyer and the threshold to the parlor.

Claire was in front of him now, closer to him than before. "Damon, I _know _that you sent me that text message when you found the location of the journal." The vampire gritted his teeth but said nothing in response to her accusation. "I get it now, okay? And it sucks, but you got what you wanted. Just get over it."

Damon's eyes were hard and cold, a sign of him not even budging on the matter. "No can do, sugar. Holding grudges is my strong suit." He whispered the last part vindictively, practically spitting in her face with spite. Claire wanted to try to talk to him more; she wanted to try and get him to understand that what he was doing was bulldozing everything in his life before Katherine returned. Instead, she saw no hope in the matter, and just scoffed viciously.

"Yeah, well, have fun holding grudges while you spend the rest of your eternity _alone _with no one who gives a damn about whether you live or die!" The female vampire snapped angrily, causing Damon to fall silent. But she didn't regret her words—not in that moment, anyway. "You know, maybe if you just stopped for one _second _to think of someone other than _yourself, _you would realize that Stefan's trying to make an effort here and I was, too! But I'm done trying to fix things with such a heartless _bastard." _Claire scoffed, angry at her own tone as much as she was at him. "Do whatever you want to do, Damon. Stefan and I are going to save Elena."

She didn't waste anytime jutting off to the right, grabbing her leather jacket that hung on the coat rack by the door, and stepping out into the daylight, where she was sure Stefan would follow her. Sure enough, Stefan exited the boarding house just as she was outside on the lawn, and he caught up to her.

"That…_might've _been a little harsh." Stefan tried to calm his friend down as they both walked across the Salvatore lawn.

Claire scoffed again. "Really? Because I think it wasn't enough!"

"Was it true?" Stefan asked, causing her to stop. "About him sending you that text message? He really did trust you?" She didn't respond for the first few moments, wondering whether or not she should lie to Stefan about the matter. But because he was oblivious to her extracurriculars, she decided that it wasn't worth the lie.

The vampire nodded. "Yeah. Damon texted me and asked me to meet him at Giuseppe's grave yesterday. I didn't get the text message until after everything was over, but he sent it while we were digging up the grave. That much I know."

Stefan sighed and rubbed his eyes, one of his idiosyncrasies that Claire had picked up on all the way back when they were children. "Ah…well, now everything just got more complicated."

The blonde just shook her head. "No. We need to stop thinking about crybaby Damon and start focusing on Elena. A plan, Stefan. We need a plan. Is there _any _way we can find Elena? Or even _Bonnie_?"

Stefan opened his mouth as if to say that there was nothing possible, but instead, he gasped. "Actually, I think there _is." _

After a visit with Sheila Bennett, Bonnie's grandmother, Stefan and Claire had learned the location of Elena and Bonnie. The location was given to them by Sheila, who had done a locator spell to find her daughter. Just as the thirty-minute deadline Anna gave hit, Stefan and Claire had found their way to the crappy motel, and the two vampires desperately searched for any noise as to where the two teenagers were being held. After a while of listening, they finally realized what room they were being held in, and Stefan left Claire to kick down the door.

Since the blinds were drawn and every crevice that could possible show any amount of sunlight had been covered, it wasn't a surprise when their captor, probably Anna's minion, had crumbled to the ground screaming out in pain. He found the first sign of coverage he could—in between the beds, of course. Stefan drew the shades back quickly so that more light streamed into the room.

"Stefan! Claire!" Elena exclaimed happily upon seeing her rescuers, and she immediately jumped off the bed.

"Follow Claire outside," Stefan told the two girls, and they immediately went with Claire, who was beckoning them out of the room. Leaving Stefan to handle the threats against Elena's captor—as any good boyfriend would do—Claire led Bonnie and Elena out into the sunlight where they would be safe against any vampire who didn't have a daylight ring under Anna's control.

"You two okay?" Claire asked as the she and the humans all slowed to a stop in front of the parking lot. Bonnie and Elena had to catch their breath, but they both nodded. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Bonnie swallowed. "No. He was about to, but no." She gave a slight nod to the vampire, who gave the witch a nod back, and a second later, Stefan emerged from the motel room and Elena ran to him, practically jumping into his arms in security. After the commotion of the breakout died down, Stefan took Bonnie and Elena back to the Bennett house, where Sheila reluctantly let Claire inside.

After filling Elena in on what happened with Damon earlier, Elena, Claire, and Stefan all re-entered the Bennett household and Elena started the conversation as soon as she walked in.

"So what do we do now?" The teenager sighed.

"Well, for now, you need to stay inside," Stefan told all of the non-vampires—whether it was the Katherine look-alike, the novice witch, or the expired witch, it didn't matter. For them to be safe from Damon or any other vampire, they needed to stay inside the house where no vampires other than Claire and Stefan had been invited.

"A prisoner, in my own home?" Sheila scoffed. "I don't think so."

Claire shook her head. "We can't protect any of you if you leave the house. I _might _be strong enough to look after one of you if I'm not being fought, but—"

"We'll protect ourselves," the elder Bennett witch returned, her voice trenchant.

Elena surprised everyone in her next sentence, changing the topic completely. "We need to let him have Katherine back." She glanced up at Stefan and Claire. "He's not going to stop until he gets her. If we help him, maybe that ends it."

"No!" Bonnie protested softly. "He doesn't deserve to get what he wants."

"Maybe is a _really _big 'if' to be taking right now, Elena," Claire reasoned with the human, but Elena merely fought back defensively.

"What other choice do we have?" she told them all, exhausted. Everyone in the room realized the truth to her statement—if they didn't help Damon, he would kidnap Bonnie, do it all on his own, and let loose twenty-seven vampires.

"Witches being pulled down by vampire problems," Sheila expressed with distaste lining her words. "As much as we tried to do to stay out of it." Another silence filled the room before Sheila conceded. "I'll open the tomb. You get your brother's girl and destroy the rest with fire. Then this will all be over."

"We still have to get Damon to agree," Stefan protested.

"He already agreed once," Elena offered, shrugging as if it would be no big deal to earn his trust back. However, the teenager wasn't quite aware of how Damon was acting this morning, let alone the fact that Damon flat-out said he couldn't care less whether she lived or died. Stefan scoffed.

"Yeah, and then we double crossed him. Now, he's furious."

"He's hurt," Elena returned empathetically. "There's a difference." Her eyes drifted to the side to see Claire, who didn't even realize Elena had been staring at her. Stefan caught Elena's stare, and his eyes drifted to Claire in realization. A few seconds later, the adult vampire recognized that she was being looked at with prompting stares. Behind those stares hid a suggestion, one that Clarissa King wasn't quite fond of.

"You guys want me to talk to him, don't you?" She trailed off, and then began to laugh. "Ha! No. Yeah, that's not happening. Damon hates me right now, and I'm not too eager to jump on this 'joining forces with Damon' bandwagon. Besides, even if I _wanted _to apologize, he wouldn't take it!" She cut her gaze from Elena to Stefan. "You heard me this morning. I blew up in his face."

"So apologize for it," Elena suggested lightly. Claire frowned. "I'm sure he'll accept your apology if you really mean it."

"But I _don't _mean it," Claire complained, looking across the room and throwing her hands up. Elena, Stefan, Bonnie, and Sheila all said nothing, but their words were written all over their faces. "Why do _I _always have to be the one to talk to him? It always backfires. Damon and I are _enemies. _We hate each other, remember?" she reminded Elena and Stefan, mostly. The witches idly sat by and watched as the other half of their party argued.

"Come on, Claire," Stefan returned, crossing his arms. "You and I both know that once upon a time, you and Damon were once friends. Which means that _somewhere _deep, _deep _inside of you both, you have to at least...care." Claire gave a whimpering sigh as a response, but the agreement was written all over her face. Elena cut in.

"Just give it a try," she proposed in an encouraging voice. "If not, then that's it. There's nothing else we can do. After the way Damon reacted last night, I don't think there's anyone else he would listen to." Elena Gilbert was absolutely positive that Stefan was right, the two enemies cared for each other on some level. But she, on the other hand, had a feeling it was more than just a friendship. When she mentioned it to Stefan, though, he absolutely denied that fact, saying it was impossible. Elena wasn't so sure, especially from Claire's expression as she softened.

The female vampire bit the inside of her cheek, but everyone in the whole room was looking at her with hope. Finally, she realized that she had dug herself into a hole so deep a hundred years ago and now was the time she had to climb out of it.

"Fine," she snapped at them, moving around Stefan towards the exit of the Bennett house. "I'll meet you at the church ruins."

* * *

With one swift movement, Damon grabbed his leather jacket on the back of the desk chair in the study, getting ready to head out. It was when he sensed another person in the room that he turned around to find Claire standing at the doorway, her own leather jacket clashing with the pale brightness of her long hair that she kept down. He was surprised to see her, sure, but that could only mean one thing.

Damon grabbed the Grimoire on the table before him, almost protectively. "Back so soon?" She said nothing. "I take it you staged a jailbreak for Elena?"

"Yep," Claire admitted, standing at her place on the second tier of the study, staring at Damon, who was on the bottom level by the couch. "Though the credit mostly goes to Stefan. He knew how to find her."

"Oh, brother. Ever the white knight." Damon gave a sour, bitter smile, and Claire sighed.

"Elena convinced Bonnie and her grandmother to help you get Katherine back," she said immediately. Damon didn't waste any time in his wicked response. "Stefan and I are willing participants. For real this time."

"I doubt that."

"If you're looking for an apology, Damon, I strongly suggest you look elsewhere," Claire snapped, moving from the door over to the stairs so she could get closer to Damon. "Stefan and Elena thought it was best I apologize for betraying you, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not sorry for what I did."

She stopped at the top stair leading into the main room, and Damon just tilted his head at her. "Well, at least you're honest."

"I was protecting myself, Damon. And I was protecting Stefan. And, on some level, I was protecting _you_. From Katherine. You may love her, but we both know what a bitch she could've been. And not just to me." Damon stayed with a straight expression, but she was aware that he agreed.

Damon straightened and swallowed. "Why are you here, Claire?" he asked, his tone accusative. The vampire across from him just shielded her eyes for a moment as she answered him.

"Elena keeps saying there's something to be redeemed in you. And…I _think _I can see where she's coming from now."

"Really?" Damon questioned, straightening. "Because, as I recall, that's not how you saw it this morning."

"Well, if you asked me if you could be redeemed this morning, I would've laughed in your face and pushed you down the stairwell. You were being an asshole," she snapped, and Damon crossed his arms over his chest defensively. Regardless, Claire let out a deep breath and walked down the steps leading into the study, her shoulders rising and falling in a deep sigh. "_But, _I do have to say that I think that I overreacted a little." Again, she shielded her eyes, but he knew the words coming out of her mouth were hard. "What I said earlier was…harsh and nasty, and I'm _sorry_."

Damon pursed his lips. "Apology accepted."

Claire nodded. "So, please," she began, stepping forward. Now, her real intentions were coming out. "Let us help you with this. We're all on the same side now, Damon. We'll get Katherine back, just as long as everyone else in that tomb is destroyed."

"Not interested," Damon said blandly, turning away. Claire stopped him.

"Yes, you are! Because you wanted to work with us yesterday, and you even trusted me enough to tell me where to find you so we could dig up the Grimoire _together_!"

Damon turned around sharply by the lower-level exit. "Fool me once, shame on you," he whispered and then turned again, ready to bolt, but Claire stopped him.

"Hey!" she called out to him, causing Damon to stop. "You know, I asked you what the worst thing I did was, but you never asked me what the worst thing you did was!" Damon didn't even turn around, but he heard her words being spoken softly. "Ask me now. I'll tell you."

Damon thought about it for a moment, but then he spun around sharply and walked forward, setting the Grimoire down on the table for resting. "All right. Worst thing I ever did to you?"

"You fell in love with me," she said abruptly, causing him to stiffen. "You kissed me, Damon, and that terrified me to no end. I was frantic about dying, I was worried about the fact that we might've been _forced _into getting married—"

"Your excuses don't support anything!" Damon snapped angrily, making her look up at him. "I _told _you how I felt. I _told _you that I would be there for you. You _kicked _me out of your life, Claire!"

"Because I was scared, Damon!" Claire whispered irately, stepping forward. "Don't you realize that? How's a girl _supposed _to react when her mom tells her that her best friend's going to be her husband someday, huh?" She ground her teeth together, and the two of them stood in silence until she spoke again. "Then, you show up in Chicago after Stefan left and we...started _this_." Claire gestured between the two of them, sighing. "And it was good—no, it was great, actually, and as guilty as I feel going behind my best friend's back, I don't really…regret it. But the problem with _this _is that it'll end as soon as we get Katherine back."

Damon sighed. "Look, I get it. But I can't continue things with you _and _be with Katherine—"

"I know," she cut him off immediately, shaking her head. "Trust me, I get it. Which is why I want you to decide. Right now," Claire demanded, never tearing her gaze away from him. "And if you choose me, things can keep going on the way they've been going on and, one day, maybe we can _try _for something else. But if not, you take Katherine, you leave, and you let me go."

Damon took a step forward so that they were only a few feet apart. "And how is this supposed to get me to trust you?"

"Because, either way, Damon, I'll help you get Katherine back, if that's what you really want," she explained. "I never _actually _told you that I would before, and now that I have, I've given you my word that I will. I won't go back on it, no matter what you decide."

Damon stepped forward again, closing the long distance between them so that they were nearly a foot apart. She watched, practically holding her breath, as he took his hand and brushed off a stray strand of pale blonde hair with an apologetic smile on his face.

"There was I time when I'd do anything for you, you know," he said quietly. "Walk through water. Jump through flames." But Damon dropped his hand to his side, shaking his head. "But this has to stop. I...I choose Katherine." He cleared his throat and recoiled into his strong build, all while watching as she reacted to his words.

Claire nodded, swallowing. There was an acrid taste in her mouth that she didn't expect. She walked into the house knowing that she had to make Damon decide for himself, and yet...his rejection hurt her more than she thought it would. Instead, she brushed it off and made sure he didn't see her break a sweat about the issue. "I figured you would. I just thought I would give it a shot."

Damon and Claire stood just a foot away from each other, too close for comfort but not ready to part just yet. "I'm trusting you, Claire," Damon murmured. "Don't make me regret it."

They left, together, for the old church, but they found themselves among a group of rowdy teenagers with cheap, red plastic cups in their hands. Both over-age vampires looked around, feeling completely out of place, but luckily no one spotted them and they kept moving all the way to the church ruins, where the tomb would be opened shortly. Upon his entrance, Damon whistled.

"Brother. Witches. Elena," Damon greeted simply, immediately traveling down into the tomb, where everyone would eventually meet him inside. Stefan and Elena turned to Claire, who walked up to them with a forced smile.

"Everything okay?" Stefan asked her, confused. Claire nodded.

"Mmhmm. I apologized. It was hell. Whatever." The vampire shrugged. "Let's just get this over and done with. Everything set?"

"I guess so," Bonnie agreed in the background, and wasting no more time, everyone set off into the tomb, where the ritual would take place.

Bonnie and her grandmother grabbed the lighter and walked around to each torch, setting the tool aflame while commenting on each torch's representation. "Air. Earth. Fire," said Sheila.

"Water," Bonnie added, holding up a bottle of tap water.

"That's it, just water from the tap?" asked Elena by the entrance/exit of the tomb as she watched Sheila sprinkle the water on the ground, making the soil damp.

"As opposed to what?" Sheila prompted the teenager.

"I just figured maybe it would have to be blessed, or…mystical, or something," Elena confessed, and after a naïve smile from Sheila, the conversation stopped. Beside Elena, Damon pulled out a blood bag from inside his jacket, unraveling the tube.

"What's that?" Stefan asked, shining his flashlight on the object.

"It's for Katherine," Damon said lightly, and then he snuck a glance up at his brother. "Gotta have something to get her going. Unless your girl's offering a vein to tap." Stefan sighed heavily, and at the expression of distaste, Damon whispered, "Admit it. You can't wait to get rid of me."

Stefan chuckled to himself. "I can't wait to get rid of you," he admitted, but it was duller than Damon might've hoped for, despite Damon's triumphant hum. The two brothers stared at each other until the witches in the circle looked up at them.

"We're ready."

* * *

Bonnie and Shelia joined hands in the middle of the circle and began to chant the incantation over and over again in unison; ever so often making the torches' flames jump higher. Damon was anxiously waiting at the door of the tomb, but upon hearing the foreign words, looked back at his brother, who was standing next to Claire and Elena.

"What are they saying?" Damon asked.

"Sounds Latin," Stefan answered, but he didn't know for sure. Beside Claire, Elena shook her head.

"I don't think it's Latin," she protested. The blonde vampire beside the human teenager just shrugged.

"Well, how about we get Google Translate to figure it out? Not like we're in the middle of anything..." Claire muttered in a joking tone. Elena chuckled to herself and went back to watching Bonnie and her Grams chant the words over and over again in whatever language it was. Eventually, the flames that had jumped higher on occasion completely sparked, causing them to violently rise and for Elena to jump back and clutch Stefan, frightened.

"What's happening?" Elena asked aloud to anyone who would answer, but no one did. Her only answer was the sound of stone breaking—a _seal _breaking—and the witches turned their head towards Damon's direction and watched as the tomb door opened to let people inside.

"It worked," Bonnie breathed out, astounded at her own power. Sheila, however, wasn't surprised.

"Of course it worked," she told her granddaughter. Damon turned around at Stefan who was shining his light on the opening of the tomb.

"Don't you have some fires to build?" he prompted his brother, who turned back at Claire and Elena.

"I'm gonna go get the gasoline," Stefan informed them.

"I'll help," Claire offered, but Stefan shook his head.

"I've got it, Claire. It'll just take me a minute; I'll be right back. Don't go in without me." The blonde nodded, and without further hesitation, Stefan went off, climbing the ladder to higher ground so he could grab the gasoline to wipe all the vampires out. But once he was gone, Damon kept his eyes on the witches and directed a question.

"You ready?" he asked, his eyes flickering to Elena. The human widened her eyes, confused.

"What?"

"You think I'm going in there by myself so you can seal me in?" Damon growled, pulling Elena to his side. Claire stepped forward, but Damon maneuvered him and Elena so that she was out of Claire's reach.

"Don't take her in," Sheila snapped beside Bonnie inside the circle. "I'll bring the walls down," she warned.

"You'll bring the walls down if I don't. You think I trust you?"

"As much as I trust you."

"That's enough!" Claire snapped, her attention shifting over to Damon, who looked over at her. She took in a breath and gestured towards the witches. "Look, I _promise_ they won't do anything to keep you inside. Just let Elena go."

But, instead, Elena shook her head in Damon's grasp. "No, Claire. Look, he needs leverage. He needs to know that you won't shut the door when he gets inside," she reasoned, flickering her gaze to the witches. "I get it. I'll go." Claire shifted uncomfortably, but Elena shook her head. "I'll be fine. Trust me."

Damon released her from his unwilling hold, and she went with him willingly as he grabbed a torch that had been lit earlier and asked politely, "May I?"

Without waiting for a response, though, Damon turned and led the way into the tomb, Elena trailing behind him with a flashlight. As Claire waited for Stefan to come down, she paced in front of the tomb door, keeping an ear out for any kind of trouble. But the real trouble wasn't inside—it was outside.

Anna came down the stairs, first being recognized by Bonnie, who stopped her. "Hey! You're not going in there!" Anna looked back and forth between the witches and Claire, who had now turned her attention to Anna.

"Well, well, well," Claire said slowly, stepping forward. "If it isn't Miss Annabelle."

"Clarissa," Anna greeted coldly. "I guess it's no surprise you're helping Damon. It's a bit confusing why you're not in there, yourself, though."

Claire stepped forward. "Simple. It'll be easier not to kill Katherine once Damon has her. He won't let me touch her." Anna straightened and a confused emotion flickered across her features. "What?"

Anna studied the vampire before her, trying to decipher whether or not Claire knew the truth. After piecing everything together, Anna cleared her throat. "You mean…Damon never told you?"

"Told me what?" Claire asked, shrugging. With a sigh, she continued upon Anna's silence. "Look, you kidnapped my best friend's girl and her best friend this morning. Now you're here in my way. Needless to say, you're kind of getting on my last nerve. So if you don't come out and say it—"

"Christopher," Anna said abruptly, causing Claire to stop and immediately move her eyes to the dark-haired female vampire in front of her. "He's in there, Clarissa."

Claire was silent for a long time, but then she scoffed. "Yeah. Right. Anna, Christopher _died _back in 1864. You're not fooling anyone."

"It's true," Anna said quickly. "Katherine turned him into a vampire—I was there. She had this…elaborate scheme to make you suffer, but, somehow, he ended up with the rest of the vampires in the church. Damon was there, too."

All earlier violent thoughts escaped her. "Damon…_knew_?" Claire whispered, confused. Anna nodded slowly.

"He did. He was there when Christopher turned, just like I was," she agreed. "And if you let me, I can help you find him inside. I just need to find my mother first."

But, despite the truth that spilled from Anna's mouth, Claire couldn't help but be skeptical of it. "Why should I believe _anything _that comes out of your mouth, Anna?" she spat.

"You don't have to," Anna returned, shaking her head. "But I'm going inside, Clarissa. And even you can't stop me."

As much as Claire wanted to fight, she couldn't bring herself to. She'd been lost to absolutely everything—the man she'd thought had long since passed was now revealed to be alive, more or less, entrapped in a tomb just a few feet from her. She was skeptical beyond belief, but nevertheless, she knew there could be a possibility. Damon's words came back to her from the night at Elena's house—he said opening the tomb was for her benefit, too.

Nevertheless, Anna walked past Claire and went inside the tomb after a slight protest from Bonnie and an interjection from Shelia telling Bonnie to let it go. The world, as Clarissa King knew it, was spinning before her, and she didn't even listen to Bonnie and Shelia's protests as she turned around and entered the tomb to find Christopher Fell and bring him back.

The tomb was dark and eerie, filled with cobwebs and all kinds of bugs, but none of it bothered the rarely grossed out vampire. With the flashlight and her enhanced vision, Claire was able to make it through the tunnels of the tomb to search for Christopher with every vampire who passed. She hadn't run into Damon, Elena, or even Anna, but it didn't matter. She went down every corner that felt right to her, searching and looking for the right desiccated vampire, but she didn't find the one she was looking for. Suddenly, there was a scream—Elena's scream, she realized. It was when she was about to leave that she heard Stefan save her and Elena get to safety, and she relaxed and kept moving from vampire to vampire, trying to recognize a face in the darkness of the tomb.

"Claire!" someone shouted loudly, causing her to rise from a vampire she was surveying, who she'd thought, but had mistaken, for Christopher. As far as she could tell, he wasn't here. At least, not in that part of the tomb. Stefan emerged before she had the chance to continue moving inside of the tomb, immediately grabbing her arm upon his arrival. "Claire," he breathed frantically. She turned back and shook her head at him, puzzled at his worried expression.

"What is it, Stefan? What's going on?"

"The tomb," he rushed out. "It seals vampires in. Bonnie and Sheila are trying to get the seal down, but they won't be able to hold it long. We _have_ to get out of here."

"But, Stefan—"

"Claire, _please. _We have to find Damon, too. He doesn't know that vampires can't get out." Claire was silent, but Stefan egged her on. "Claire, we don't have enough time! Please, come with me. _Now_."

She could've pulled away from the grip on her arm, but instead, she let Stefan pull her with him through the twists and turns of the large tomb that ran underneath the old church ruins. There was no point to searching for Christopher anymore—Anna was lying, she should've noticed. They found Damon, pacing back and forth in a closed-off space with only a few vampires inside. But no one had time to look them over as Stefan and Claire raced up to him.

"Damon—"

"She's not here," Damon whispered, ignoring his brother's try. Nevertheless, the two vampires heard him loud and clear.

"What?" Stefan whispered.

"She's not _here_!" Damon shouted loudly, throwing the blood bag that he had against the wall of the tomb, letting it splash and drip down on the walls.

"Stefan, they can't hold it much longer!" A voice rung throughout the caves of the tomb, but Damon was too busy ranting and arguing with Stefan to notice it. Stefan was trying to get his brother to concede, but he wouldn't. After hearing Elena's cry, Claire quickly spun around to Damon and Stefan and pushed Stefan out of the way.

"Damon, you need to _listen _to me!" she snapped angrily, causing Damon to look over at her. "If we don't get out of here, all of this is for nothing. _Please_," Claire whispered desperately. Damon looked her over with eccentric eyes, and eventually, he nodded, and she sighed in relief.

Then, something caught her eye, making her stop in her steps to flee. She could see it, gleaming in the low candlelight of Damon's hand torch. But it was just for a small second that she saw the ring, and then in another second, it was gone, and someone was pulling her in another direction towards the exit. All three vampires emerged just as the tomb door shut behind them, sealing everyone else inside that tomb to the rest of eternity as they were before.

After all the commotion ended, Stefan and Elena went on higher ground with Damon and Claire trailing behind them. Elena and Stefan immediately rushed up to Jeremy who was knocked out cold on the ground, but was still conscious and alive. Stefan assured his girlfriend that her brother would be okay, but he could see Damon stumble out onto the ground, completely lost and broken. Claire was behind him, a little ways away, and she, too, looked broken and lost.

The blonde vampire stepped forward, towards Damon by the very second. The image of a silver wedding ring that she had picked out herself was branded into her memory in the small, glowing light of the torch, and she stumbled over to Damon, her expression emotionless.

"It was him, wasn't it?" she whispered softly to Damon, realizing that raising her voice at a time like this would do neither of them any good. "It was Christopher."

Damon stood in his place, and she expected him to lie to her. Instead, he nodded once, not needing to say anything else to go with the gesture of agreement. Her eyes filled with tears, but she kept them back, licking her lips to try and refrain from breaking down.

He didn't need to say anything to her, and he didn't feel like it, either. Neither one of them said anything, in fact, until Claire nodded and shielded her eyes from him. She didn't step forward; she didn't move, in fact. Instead, she just hung her head.

"I'm sorry that Katherine wasn't there, Damon," she said, taking Damon completely by surprise. He didn't show it, but he watched as she just shook her head once and turned, abruptly fleeing the scene, unwilling to talk to anyone—not even her best friend, who watched from afar and put the pieces together.

* * *

Claire found herself back at the boarding house for some reason—sitting on the couch properly with a glass of bourbon swishing back and forth with the motion of her hand. Everything, as of the moment, seemed absolutely destroyed. And, as much as she felt sorry for the vampire in the next room over, she couldn't face him. As it seemed, he didn't want to face her, either—at least, not in his darkest hour. However, contrary to what normal people might do, Claire didn't shed a single tear. She just sat there, staring at the floor with absolutely nothing to say.

Stefan walked into the parlor, his hands in his pockets, and he greeted her in a small, soft voice. "Hey."

She didn't move her eyes up to meet his as Stefan sat down beside her, just waiting for her to be ready to speak. A minute passed, but she finally opened her mouth.

"A hundred and forty years," Claire whispered, her voice completely bland. "A hundred and forty years and I didn't realize that he was entrapped in a tomb cursed by Emily Bennett. I didn't even…know he was a vampire. Everyone said he was killed in the battle."

Stefan gave a heartbreaking expression. "That's why you went in there, wasn't it? To find him?" Claire nodded. "Did you?" She nodded again. "It was right before we went out, wasn't it?" Again, another silent nod. "God, Claire, I'm…I'm _so _sorry."

A dark, heavy silence pierced them both until Claire brought the bourbon glass up to her lips and drank the burning alcohol, claiming it with a fiery tsk and returning the glass back to her lap after she was finished. Stefan watched as she sat, completely broken. _  
_

"I left my husband to rot in a tomb for the rest of eternity, Stefan." Finally, she turned her head to meet Stefan's green eyes that pined for her happiness. Instead, all he saw was emptiness. "How am I supposed to live with myself for what I've done?"

"You didn't have a choice, Claire," Stefan pushed, scooting closer to her. "If you had stayed in there any longer to get him, you would be right where he was. You and I barely made it out in time." He put an arm around her shoulder, and she didn't object. Instead, she bowed her head and water pricked at her eyes. "You had no other choice. You can't take this out on yourself."

She didn't say anything after that, and Stefan didn't expect her to. He held her while she cried, something that he hated seeing from his friend. He hardly ever saw her cry, but he knew it was possible. It was only that lately, she had been happy to some extent. However, all of that was gone now, and he just tried to comfort her in the best way that a friend could. But what could a friend really say to make something like that better? She was absolutely right; her husband was rotting underneath of old church ruins and there was nothing they could do about that. Getting in the tomb was a one-time deal.

All Stefan could do was hold her until she decided that she wanted to be alone, to which he obliged and soon after went to Damon.

* * *

Fell's Church, in spite of recent events, was silent, dark, and absolutely untouchable. Though the Duke Party had ended, there were a few wandering strays here and there, but they didn't go out near the ruins. But that didn't exactly mean there wasn't any life there at all, of course, because underneath the surface, a tomb full of bloodthirsty and desiccated vampires existed. Within that tomb, of course, happened to be a cove where a dim fire flickered across the dead, yet _not _dead, vampires' faces, and beside the fire was a man. The man_—_really, the _vampire—_was dressed in a once proper, dusty, and tattered suit, slumped against the wall.

At his hand happened to be the remains of a bag—a blood bag, drained of most human blood. The vampires had all witnessed the invasion of other vampires upon their resting place, and though they had begged to be taken out with one, they didn't get their wish. They'd all heard the seal of the tomb again, but not all of them had the strength and the means to grip onto the blood bag at this male vampire's mercy.

The man with the silver wedding ring on his left ring finger gripped the blood bag tight, brought it up to his mouth, and had just enough to gather enough strength to stand. It was a step-by-step process, first crawling and gathering up all scraps of blood, then standing, and then finally licking off the remainder of the blood on the wall so that he could walk. It took long enough, but the vampire was able to wipe clean all evidence of blood and walk past all the rotting vampires to the entrance of his entrapment. A surge of adrenaline to get out of the tomb overwhelmed him, and the strong, yet still weak, vampire broke the seal on the door, moving it to the side enough so that he could get through. Again, it took long enough, but after a while, the man was able to get through the small crack in the door and step out, the moonlight hitting his face.

Christopher Fell stood at the bottom of the tomb; his face covered in blood, looking up at the night sky, and only one thought crossed his mind at the time. The reason he was able to muster enough strength—enough motivation—to get out of the tomb in the first place.

_Clarissa King._

* * *

**What'd I tell you? Complicated, right? So, what I wanted to do was make sure that Claire didn't punch or kick or scream at Damon so soon after he realized Katherine was out of the tomb...she's not a complete bitch. But in 1x15, she won't really be all warm and fuzzy to Damon like Elena at least attempts to be, feeling sorry for him. After all, if you were in her situation, you wouldn't be too happy with someone keeping a secret like that, either, would you?**

**So anyways, that's it for the chapter. I'll update as soon as I can. Review, please!**

_**Love,**_

_**BellaSalvatore1918**_

_**X**_


	7. A Few Good Men

**Hey, everyone. I totally lied. There aren't any flashbacks in this chapter. I decided against putting flashbacks because the chapter was long enough as it was without them. But I'm pretty sure that the next one _will _have flashbacks...most likely of Claire and Christopher's wedding. Anyways, sorry for the disruption in my updating schedule too. I just sat down to write some of this chapter and it all kind of came out at once. Hope you enjoy! Review at the end if you can please.**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**A Few Good Men**

The morning sun was cool on the backpacker as he trekked up the hill in the woods, listening to the sound of the colorful autumn leaves crunch softly at his feet. The backpacker stopped in his steps to look around and soak in the beauty of the nature around him—to listen to the birds chirp and the wind sway the trees. In addition to those sounds, though, there was a crunching sound much like he had made when he walked, which could only mean one thing.

The backpacker jumped upon turning around and finding that there was another man behind him, standing idly by a branch. The backpacker let out a breath realizing that it was just a man, more or less.

"You scared me," the backpacker explained.

Christopher Fell stepped forward and found words in his dry throat. "Do you know what day it is?" he asked.

The backpacker gave a look of confusion and of an obvious nature. "It's Saturday."

_Saturday_, the vampire repeated in his head. "And what…year?"

Time was nothing when he was trapped in a cave full of vampires. Until he'd had the blood on the wall of the tomb, he had been practically dead.

The backpacker looked like he pitied Christopher. "It's 2010." Christopher's eyes dropped. _2010, _his mind repeated. More than a century since 1865, the last year he could name. The backpacker then questioned, "You okay?"

Christopher nodded. "Thank you." But he _wasn't _okay. He'd spent a hundred years underneath the ground. God knows what'd happened to his wife after he'd been trapped. She was a vampire; that much he was aware of. But what if she had gotten killed after he'd been trapped? All possibilities raced through Christopher's mind—negative possibilities.

"Wait!" the backpacker stopped Christopher as he saw the man was beginning to leave. "What's your name?"

"Christopher, sir."

"How did you get out here?" The backpacker took a step forward. "Why are you dressed like that?"

Christopher looked down at his clothes, staring at the tattered, dusty mess. If the year was 2010, he would be branded suspicious the second he stepped foot into civilization, which was what he needed to do. Christopher's blue eyes looked up at the backpacker, who waited for his answer. Instead, Christopher answered with another question.

"Are you acquainted with a girl named Clarissa?" Christopher asked abruptly, taking the backpacker by surprise. "Clarissa King?"

"Clarissa King?" the backpacker repeated, shaking his head. "Uh, no. I don't know a Clarissa King. Why?"

Christopher realized that this man was a dead end, and if he was to find his long-lost wife, he couldn't do it looking the way he did. "You seem like a kind person," he whispered. "I'm very sorry."

The backpacker shrugged. "Sorry for what?"

But there were no more questions being asked. Christopher lunged forward, his fangs drawn, and he ripped into the backpacker's neck, causing the man to scream. Since they were out in the middle of nowhere, though, no one could hear him. The screams lasted for only a moment before the backpacker's dead body dropped to the ground and Christopher stepped back, savoring the taste of sweet blood.

The sight of the sun startled Christopher, and he squinted at its brightness. Putting the dead body on hold for just a moment, he stumbled back and raised his hand to block the sun from his eyes. As he did so, something gleamed on his hand, catching Christopher's attention. The startled vampire suddenly forgot all about the blinding sun and merely looked down at his pale hand to find his wedding ring was the cause of the gleam. But what he noticed when he brought his hand up to his face was that there was something inside of the band. Something he'd never noticed before.

There were blue gemstones—tiny ones—embedded in the band around his finger. Christopher ran his right hand's long fingers over the ring, feeling the bumps where the gemstones had been placed. But he was _sure _that his wedding band had been embedded with the smallest diamonds, not blue gemstones. Someone, he realized, had messed with his wedding band long before he'd been trapped under the tomb.

The real question was: _why_?

Christopher began to take the ring off, twisting it off of his swollen finger so that he could examine it closer. He took a look at the gleaming gemstones clashing with the silver, and a feeling of conflict crashed over him. He needed to find Clarissa as soon as he could. He needed to know if she was still alive, after all these years.

He braced himself to put the ring back on, but instead, the ring slipped out of his grasp and fell to the floor. Christopher bent down to pick it up, but he soon became distracted. The sun was now _burning _his skin, causing him to cry out in pain and his skin to start growing red and irritated. He was literally being _fried_ due to the sunlight, but it didn't take a scientist to realize that the ring he had dropped was the reason for this change. Desperately, Christopher clawed at the soiled ground and clutched the ring in his hand along with a fistful of dirt. Instantly, the burning sensation on his skin ceased, and he was safe from the wicked sunlight.

Letting the soil sift through his hand, Christopher looked at the ring in amazement. The _ring, _it protected him from the sun. He was confused beyond doubt, but that didn't stop him from slipping his wedding band onto his ring finger again. He then looked down at the dead backpacker and eyed the backpacker's clothes. What a fashion change the modern world had gone through, he recognized.

After stripping the corpse of its clothes, Christopher left his own rags by the corpse's side and dressed again. The clothes fit, much to his relief, but he was more than uncomfortable in them. Suddenly, there was a sharp ring that sounded loud in his ear. Christopher desperately looked around for the source of the ringing, but he found it was closer to his right ear. He then realized that there was something in the breast pocket of the jacket the backpacker was wearing, and he pulled out whatever it was inside of the pocket. It was a cell phone, not that he knew that. It was merely something foreign to him…something _strange. _So he ditched the cell phone with a confounded expression and backed away, turning to find any source of civilization he could.

* * *

Claire slammed the human against the sidewall of the girl's bathroom stall as she thrust them both into the Grill's bathroom and locked the door. As soon as all precautions had been taken, she turned her attention back to the male human and attacked his lips with absolutely no remorse at all. A sharp pain lined her stomach, but she didn't listen to it. Instead, she clutched the human closer by the collar and continued to kiss him ruthlessly.

When Claire let the man's mouth go so she could trail her lips teasingly across the human's throat, the male shuddered. "And I didn't even have to buy you a drink first."

"Mm," the vampire murmured against the warm flesh of the male human—she was quite certain his name was Avery, but she wasn't absolutely positive. Honestly, it didn't really matter to her. "I'm a very easy girl."

The human nervously laughed. "Yeah. You are."

He forced her head up and kissed her again, his tongue plunging into her mouth and beginning a war that she tried hard not to gain control of. Despite the fact that they were in a girl's bathroom, Avery turned her and urged her forward, his hands shamelessly grabbing her ass in the process. The vampire, all too used to human tricks, made it easy on the both of them and broke their kiss for just a moment so she could get on top of the bathroom counter and fit the human in between her legs so they could resume where they left off. Her legs wound around the human's waist, but it was nothing like a hot and heavy make-out session with a vampire. The human, though enjoyable, was falling behind, so Claire had to do something about it. She tightened her legs and grabbed a fistful of his short, brunette hair, pulling him away from her for a minute.

Avery chuckled. "You like to play rough, don't you?"

Claire gave a wolfish grin. "Oh, you have _no _idea." Her eyes concentrated on his and she compelled, "Don't fight me. Don't scream. Trust me, we'll both enjoy this."

Avery complied with her demands, never once fighting her as she pulled his lips back to hers and violently kissed the human before her lips moved down to the warm flesh of the man's neck. Without further delay and with help of her compulsion, Claire pierced her fangs into Avery's neck and drank deeply, the thick ropes of sweet, human blood from the vein filling her. She pulled away after a few seconds, sighing in bliss at the way it felt to be drinking from the vein. Blood bags sufficed, but she liked it better when a man was at her mercy.

Just when she was about to seal the deal between her and Avery, there was a knock on the door. Claire ignored it and brought Avery's lips to hers again, kissing him deeper this time to insinuate her intention. His hands traced the curves of her hips with need, but it didn't get much further than that when Claire heard the voice on the other side of the door.

"Claire! It's Elena! I know you're in there. Open up!"

The blonde-haired vampire sighed heavily and pushed Avery away from her before hopping down from the bathroom counter. She wiped her lips free of any excessive blood and turned around to Avery.

"Forget this happened," she compelled, her voice nothing but a grumble, and then she walked over to the door and opened it. Sure enough, Elena was on the outside of the door, watching as the dazed human walked out of the bathroom and out to the rest of the customers in the restaurant. Claire leaned against the Grill's bathroom door. "Yes, Elena?"

"Were you just…?" Elena trailed off. Claire nodded. "Sorry. I thought I saw you go in alone…"

"Don't worry about it. It's kind of a good thing that you stopped me. That guy grabs ass like it's money." Claire made a face and brushed off the back of her jeans before sighing and looking up at her. "But obviously you had a reason for interrupting, so let's hear it."

"I need your help," Elena said, her voice soft and strong. "I promised Stefan I would do this with him, but…I kind of just felt like I needed to do it now and Stefan's handling Damon. I-I don't really want to do this alone."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "What do you need to do?"

Elena led Claire outside to her car and explained that Jenna had found her birth mother and her birth mother's friend. Elena had her birth mother's friend, Trudie Peterson's, address, and she wanted to visit. There was also the slight little detail that Alaric Saltzman, the high school History teacher with a dirty little vampire-hunting secret, was married to an Isobel, and she had died. Elena was worried that her Isobel was the same Isobel as Alaric's, and she didn't want to handle that. Nevertheless, she drove to the address Jenna had given her with Claire in the passenger seat.

"So..." Elena began, trying to beat around the bush. "Are you…okay?"

Claire sighed heavily. "Well…let's see. I partook in a scheme to get the person I hate more than anyone else in the world out of a tomb she wasn't even in, and in the process, I found out that my dead husband is _actually_ a vampire sealed in said tomb and then I left him there to spend the rest of his eternal days starving." The vampire looked over at the human. "I don't know about you, but I'm just _peachy_."

"You can't blame yourself," Elena tried, speeding past a green light. "There was no way you could've gotten him _and _yourself out of there."

"Elena, I'm fine," Claire told her, exasperated. "Really. I understand that it wasn't my fault, I just…wish I could've _done_ something."

Elena turned her head for just a second to eye the blonde vampire. "If you were really fine, you wouldn't have been hooking up with my gym teacher in the bathroom."

Claire widened her eyes. "That was your _gym teacher_?" Elena nodded. A sigh escaped the vampire's lips. "Well, that explains the ass-grabbing. Oh, well. Look, it's complicated, okay? I just learned that I've been committing adultery for around…oh, a hundred and fifty years. The way I see it, I'm already going to hell. Might as well embrace it."

Elena sighed. "Well, I imagine Damon's probably doing the same thing."

Claire shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I haven't talked to him since the night we opened the tomb." Elena opened her mouth, but as she was determined to brush it off, Claire pointed outside her window to the blue house just up the road that matched their target address. "There's the house," she announced.

Elena pulled up to the curb, double-checked the address, and the two slowly made their way onto the porch. Claire was only there for moral support, so when Elena hesitated, Claire just crossed her arms and tilted her head at the door. Upon seeing the gestures that indirectly spelled out the words "stop being a coward" to her, the human knocked on the door with her back stiff. When no one answered after the first two seconds, Elena turned, but she ran straight into Claire, who turned the human around to watch as the door opened. A petite blonde answered the door with a small smile, staring at the two girls on her doorstep.

"Trudie?" Elena asked cautiously, smiling in the slightest. "T-Trudie Peterson?"

"Yes," said the homeowner.

"Um, my name is Elena Gilbert. This is my friend, Claire King. I…wanted to talk to you about Isobel Flemming," she explained, her voice slightly unstable. Trudie just smiled.

"Well, I haven't heard that name in years." Elena nodded slowly. "How do you know her?"

"I think that—um…" Elena brushed a strand of hair out of her face and nervously tried to explain her reasoning for showing up. "Well…" She paused and looked over at Claire, who just gave her an encouraging look. The brunette sighed heavily. "Do you know if she had a baby that she gave up for adoption?" Elena forced out to Trudie.

Upon hearing the question, the blonde human straightened and gasped. "Oh, my God. You're her daughter." Elena stiffened, but Trudie just smiled wide and laughed. "I was just gonna make some tea, would you like some?"

"Sure," Elena agreed.

"Uh…the kitchen's this way." Trudie stepped aside in the threshold for Elena to step through, but her intentions were clear. She didn't invite either Elena or Claire inside, which was heavily suspicious. Nevertheless, before it could become an issue, Claire heard her phone begin to ring in her pocket.

"Claire," Elena started, but the blonde just looked at the screen on her phone. It was Stefan.

Claire sighed and looked up at Elena and Trudie. "Uh…you know what, I've got to take this." She looked over at Elena. "I'll wait for you outside, okay?"

Elena nodded once, confused but nevertheless going with it, and she stepped through the threshold without a problem. Claire immediately answered the phone so that it wasn't sent to voicemail, and while Trudie closed the door, she continued down the porch steps.

"Stefan," Claire said into the phone. "What's up?"

"_Hey. Where are you?" _

"I'm, uh…I'm out with Elena," Claire confessed, walking over to Elena's car. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"_Well, it's kind of a long story." _Stefan paused. _"I was going to tell you earlier, but you didn't come home last night. Are you sure that you're…" _

Claire slipped her free hand into her back pocket and scoffed while she paced on the sidewalk. "There's no need to worry about me, Stefan. I'm just dealing. I'm sorry I haven't been so…approachable lately."

"_You? Unapproachable? With all the men floating in and out of your room late at night? Not at all…" _

A bitter chuckle escaped Claire's lips. "Keep making jokes, Stefan. I happen to remember a solid decade where there were plenty of women floating in and out of your room."

"_Let's not relive those days. I just want to make sure you're doing okay." _A silence passed before he began again. _"Wait a second, you said you were with Elena? Is there something wrong?" _

Claire shook her head, despite the fact that Stefan couldn't see. She turned in her pacing. "No. Nothing's wrong. Elena just needed my help with something, that's all. Moral support."

Stefan was silent. _"She went to see Trudie, didn't she?" _

Claire let out a caught groan. "I _know _she promised you she'd go with you, but you were busy and I—"

"_No, no. You're fine. I'm just worried about her with all this birth mother stuff going around. Not to mention what might've actually happened to Isobel." _At this, Claire raised an eyebrow.

"What actually happened to Isobel?"

"_That would be something you would know if you came home last night, but I…I think I should wait to tell you in person. I have to tell Elena, too."_

Claire frowned. "You know how much I hate Shady Stefan. Spill it."

"_I will," _Stefan promised. _"Once you come home, okay? Now I've got to go. I'll see you later, Claire." _

"Stef—" But that was all she managed to get out before Stefan hung up on her and the line went dead. She groaned frustratedly to herself, but realized there was no point in calling him back. Instead, she waited by the edge of Elena's car for the teenager to come out of the house. A few minutes after her phone call with Stefan had ended, Elena came out of the house, practically running. She kept looking behind her in concern, and when she finally reached Claire, the vampire expressed her worry. "What is it?"

"I think Trudie knows about vampires," Elena confessed.

Claire scoffed. "Uh…_yeah. _She didn't invite us in. That was sign number one."

"Yeah, and then she gave me this tea and…I _think _it was laced with vervain. No, actually, I…I _know _it was laced with vervain. What is this supposed to mean, Claire?"

The vampire shrugged. "I…I don't know." Maybe it had something to do with what Stefan needed to tell her. "Let's just get back, okay?"

Elena nodded and walked around the car to the driver's side while Claire held her door open. Before the vampire could get into the car, though, she sensed someone's presence other than her own. Turning her head, she realized that she was right when she caught the gaze of a mysterious man in the middle of the road, staring at them. Elena turned her head, too, upon seeing Claire's distracted face, but as soon as she did, the vampire snapped out of it.

"Come on, Elena," Claire murmured, getting into the passenger side of Elena's car, and Elena hurriedly got into the driver's seat and made off without a hitch.

* * *

Christopher wondered the town square, watching as normal, modern people walked by in the town that he felt was foreign to him. He knew it was Mystic Falls by all the signs, but he didn't _feel _like it was his home. There were buildings and strange vehicles and things he never knew could exist. On top of that, there was the fact that he had only been a vampire for around a day and a half before he was sent to burn in the church with the rest of them, so he was ravenous. He could hear things from a mile away, he could see things sharper than the normal eye, and he had a burning desire in his throat for what he'd tasted from the backpacker—_blood._

There were so many things happening around him. Girls talking on these gadgets he was unaware of, kids roaming around carelessly in the middle of the town square, couples holding hands, business partners conversing. It was all quite overwhelming and uncomfortable for the vampire.

Just when he was about to combust from all of the new sights around him, he saw one that was familiar. He'd wished, he'd _hoped_, the first familiar person he saw was his wife, but instead, he saw two vampires from the tomb sitting on a park bench. He knew the two vampires by name—Harper and Bethanne. So, it wasn't just him who'd gotten out of the tomb? Christopher wasn't aware of how that made himself feel—relieved or terrified—but nevertheless, he turned to find someone he wasn't locked away with for the last century. It wasn't just a wish to find Clarissa now; it was a _need. _He needed answers, and he knew the only way he'd get them was from Clarissa.

* * *

Stefan's room was dead silent as Claire walked into her best friend's room, calling out his name with a sigh.

"Stefan?" She turned her head around the room, exhausted, and then she heard the melodic voice of a dark-haired vampire that _certainly _wasn't Stefan.

"Better. _Me_."

Claire whipped around to find Damon walking out of Stefan's bathroom, his sculpted chest perfectly visible to her. His pants rode low on his waist and his hair was a complete ruffled mess on his head; it resembled the way he looked after Claire, or any other woman, really, raked her fingers through it. Damon dragged himself out of the bathroom, a drunken smile over his lips.

"Damon," Claire spoke, her voice cold. "You look—"

"Dashing? Gorgeous? _Irresistible_?" Damon filled in for her, walking forward so that he was just merely inches from her face. He leaned in on the last word, but she leaned back without so much as a thought.

"Wasted," she finished dully. Damon just rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"No reason why."

"Okay, then." Claire let out a deep sigh and just gave him a reserved smile. "I'm just going to—" She moved back to leave, but Damon spoke before she was able to put her heel onto the ground.

"Do you know I'm one of Mystic Falls' most eligible bachelors?" Damon asked her proudly, giving her a pout and posing "seductively" for her. Claire raised an eyebrow.

"Do they also know that you slaughtered half the town when you came here? Because they should probably reconsider." Damon shrugged again and turned around, walking over to Stefan's full-length mirror by the bed. Claire watched as Damon grabbed the shirt he laid out and fit it over his strong build. She wanted to walk away, but it was too amusing to watch as Damon miserably failed at buttoning the shirt. He turned around, helpless.

"Help a guy out, would you? Can't…get this."

Claire dropped her arms from a crossed position and exasperatedly walked over to him. She knew the game he was trying to play, and she was quite disappointed in herself for playing along. Nevertheless, she spun them both around so that she was facing Damon and he was watching her as her fingers began to lightly brush over the buttons. Neither one of them said a word until Damon broke the ice.

"You've been avoiding me," Damon whispered, leaning closer. Claire just moved to another button. "I take it you're angry?"

"Angry?" Claire repeated, her shoulder rising and falling smoothly. "Now why would I be angry? You lied to me for an entire _century _Damon. And you even tricked me into sleeping with you! No, if anything, I'm _impressed_." But her words dripped with sarcasm and bitterness.

Damon held up a finger and tsked. "Now, now. I never _tricked_ you into sleeping with me."

Claire scoffed venomously. "No, you just didn't tell me that my husband was rotting underneath Fell's Church while we were rolling around in your sheets." Her eyes drifted up to his and her hands stilled on a button. "Damon, that's the very _definition_ of a trick."

"Would you _really _have never slept with me even if I told you Christopher was in that tomb?" Damon practically laughed, but Claire's face didn't change. "Come on, Claire. We both know he was never what you wanted."

Their eyes locked for the faintest moment, but then Claire shook her head. "You're wrong," she said simply.

Damon nodded slowly. "Yeah. I'm wrong. That's why you pick a different guy to have sex with every night."

"That's none of your business," Claire muttered as she resumed buttoning his shirt up.

"We both know that it is my business," Damon whispered, but his voice was loud to her considering he was just by her ear. "Just say the word, Claire, and we're back to what we normally do. I can make you forget _all_ about him."

"Just like you want to forget all about Katherine?" Claire shot, leaning back. Damon sighed. "I'm not going to be your pick-me-up, Damon. Not anymore. We're done."

Damon hummed. "You're always sexy when you're angry."

"And you're always unattractive when you're day drunk."

A laugh escaped Damon's intoxicated lips. "You always say this has to stop, but it never does." Only, deep down, he knew that this time was real. He just didn't want to admit it.

She looked up at him, stilling her fingers on her third button, and her gaze caught his. But she was far from flattered or turned on, she was furious. He was taunting her about giving it another go-around when he damn well knew that he had hid the fact that she wasn't a widow, she was still a wife. And he didn't even have enough courage to tell her when the tomb was open. She couldn't help but wonder what she would've done if Anna never told her about Christopher being in there. Despite his rejection, Claire knew that there was a chance she would've forgiven him if she hadn't realized he'd been lying.

But there wasn't a chance. Not anymore.

"Yeah, well, this time I mean it," Claire said sternly and brushed past Damon without caring that she had only gotten through three buttons. Before she could get five steps towards the door, Stefan and Elena approached the threshold. Immediately, Claire sighed, relieved. "There you are, Stefan."

"Hey," Stefan returned, giving Claire a smile as he and Elena walked into the room together. Claire opened her mouth to respond, but instead, Damon groaned behind her.

"_Ugh. _I need a bigger jacket." As fast as Damon had put Stefan's jacket on, he took it off with distaste. "Wow. You know, an occasional sorority girl might, um, you know…help fill you out a little bit," Damon suggested, gesturing to his chest.

Stefan just gave his brother a tight smile and Damon walked away, continuing to button up his shirt.

"He's perfectly fine, isn't he?" Elena asked in disbelief as she stared after Damon.

"He's Damon," Stefan retorted, turning to his girlfriend with a shrug. Claire scoffed at the sight of Damon's blatant theatrics of helplessness against her, which only made her more furious towards his cause.

"I think this heartache will be _wonderful_ for him, you know? Maybe he'll be so sad for the rest of his life he'll never _ever _be happy again," the vampire spat.

Stefan sighed. "Oh, I did _not _miss this," he muttered. Claire's gaze cut to him, and seeing his expression, she sighed heavily.

"I…I wish I could say I'm sorry for saying that about him, but really, I'm not. I'm just sorry that you have to be in the middle of it." Her eyes drifted from Stefan to Elena, and a light bulb immediately went off in her head. "Oh! I almost forgot. You needed to tell me something, didn't you, Stefan? Both me and Elena?"

"He…already told me," Elena confessed. "But, I'll go outside and get the car ready so you two can talk."

Elena left after her announcement, and Claire stared after her. "Are we going somewhere?" she asked, but after a few moments, she realized. "Ah. The fundraiser. I was going to go alone, but…hey, why not?" Claire exhaled. "So, what is it that you needed to tell me?"

"Did Elena tell you about Isobel?" Stefan began, shifting and putting his hands in his pockets. Claire nodded. "Well, it turns out that Isobel actually _is _Alaric's wife, the one who taught him all he knows about vampire."

"Wait, wasn't she killed by a vampire?" Claire recalled, raising her eyebrows. Stefan just nodded. "Well, do you know who it was?"

Stefan took a large inhale. "Alaric thinks it was Damon."

Claire crossed her arms over her chest and widened her eyes. "_Damon _was the one who killed Elena's birth mother?" Stefan barely gave another nod, but he didn't have to agree with her. Claire gritted her teeth. "Oh, that _sick _son of a bitch—!"

"Claire," Stefan stopped her, gripping her arms to keep her from getting out of his room. "Please don't say anything. Not yet. There's so much going on right now, I…I don't think he'll be able to take it if we confront him and it turns out not to be true."

"Why are you walking on eggshells with him, Stefan?" Claire snapped, forcing Stefan's hands off of her. Her tone was so abrasive, but it didn't hurt Stefan, it just made him look at her with pity. "He doesn't _deserve _to be treated like some fragile doll! He _lied _to me, and now we know that he _killed _your girlfriend's mother. I'm done trying to make peace with him!"

"I know, Claire. Believe me, I know. What Damon did to you was wrong, and I completely understand why you want to get back at him." She silenced upon his agreement, watching as Stefan searched her eyes to find some calmness inside. "But you can't use this as an excuse to attack him. As much as he deserves it, he _is _fragile right now. If we push him the wrong way, he'll turn his humanity off again."

"After _everything _he's put us through?" Claire whispered, shaking her head. "I _know _he's your brother, Stefan. I know that. But Damon has done nothing but lie to us and betray us and _abandon _us over the years. We need to stop protecting him at some point. _You _need to stop protecting him!"

"You know it's not that simple." Claire sighed, frustrated, but Stefan just shook his head. "Look, you _know _I would do anything for you. But right now, I _need _you to do this for me. I need you to hold off on sharpening your pitchfork just yet." The female vampire looked over at the one in front of her, and a smile threatened her lips.

"_Fine_," Claire agreed unwillingly. "Fine! I will hold off on the pitchfork, but you know I can't hold off my anger for long. I thought avoiding Damon for the last few days would make it go away, but all I can think about is driving a stake through that _empty _chest cavity of his." Her blue orbs drifted up to capture Stefan's green ones. "You know, I'm starting to lose track of the favors you owe me."

"Well, can you add one more to the list?" Stefan asked hopefully. Claire immediately dropped her faint smile. "I need you to keep this from Elena. Until I know for sure that Damon was the one who killed Isobel, I don't want her to know. Do you think you could take her to the Grill and keep her distracted while I talk to Damon?"

A long, heavy sigh escaped the vampire's lips, but she knew she had no choice. She rubbed her eyes and then dropped her hands to her sides with an exasperated slap. "What are friends for?"

* * *

The fundraiser was a huge success for such a small town—nearly all of the desperate, single women in town showed up at the Grill for it. Even some of the married ones showed up, too. Claire was sure she'd even seen a woman with a big, fat diamond engagement ring buying a raffle ticket. It was pathetic, really, but she wasn't in a place to judge. After all, she'd been sleeping with the enemy for over a hundred years and was married while doing so. In hindsight, she was probably the worst offender of them all.

While she was at the bar getting herself a strong drink to hold her over until Stefan arrived, Claire heard her name from behind her. "Claire King?"

She turned around to face an elegant, bright-eyed, smiling woman who looked pleased to meet her acquaintance. Claire slid off the bar stool and gave the sophisticated woman a smile. "Yes."

"I'm Carol Lockwood." Carol stuck out her hand, and Claire took it with just a moment of hesitation until she realized who she was dealing with. Carol Lockwood was obviously the wife of Richard Lockwood, the town's mayor. "Sheriff Forbes told me that you arrived into town a while ago. I apologize for not being able to meet you sooner."

Claire shook her head. "It's no problem at all. Truth is, it's been a hassle getting settled." The bartender finally served Claire her drink, and she took it with a gracious response and turned back to Carol, who chuckled.

"I can imagine. Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about your family's spot on the Founder's Council." Claire took a light sip of her drink, realizing exactly what this little conversation was about. Carol wanted her to join the Council and take Jack's spot. Sure enough, Claire was right on point. "I was hoping you would take over for your family's spot since there are no other Kings living in Mystic Falls. Jack was the only one."

"Mrs. Lockwood—"

"Please," Carol interjected. "Call me Carol."

"Carol," Claire corrected as a courtesy. They began to walk down from the bar and into the crowd of single women. "I would love to take Jack's spot, but I feel like—"

"She's not ready to take over the position so soon." Claire and Carol turned their heads to face their interruption. Damon Salvatore emerged from the crowd and circled the blonde vampire, all the while keeping his eyes locked on the delectable Mrs. Lockwood. Damon pouted. "Grieving over her grandfather has been so hard on her. Hasn't it, Claire?"

Damon's eyes drifted for just a second to look down at her, but then he looked back up at Carol Lockwood with a smile that practically made the grown woman's knees buckle. Claire felt a surge of anger rise within her, and she couldn't stop herself before it was too late.

"Actually, Carol, on second thought, I would be absolutely _delighted _to join the Council." She gave Carol a warm, inviting smile, conveying her false innocence. Damon's eyes cut to her and watched as Claire just glanced up at him. "I think it'd be the perfect way for me to start moving on. Don't you think, Damon?"

It was a mistake, sure, but it was one she would have to deal with later. Damon's attitude, his actions, and his lies were starting to take its toll on Claire and she was growing relentless. She was beginning to feel like she wanted to do everything in her power to piss Damon off.

"Wonderful," Carol chirped, looking back and forth between the vampires. "I trust Damon can fill you in on everything there is to know. Won't you, Damon?"

Damon hummed underneath his breath and the two vampires looked back at Carol with their blue eyes. "Yes. Of course I will. Later," Damon added and extended a hand to Carol. "But, first, why don't I buy you a drink?"

The lustful Mayor's wife was surprised at first, but didn't object to Damon's charm. He led her away to the bar without another word to the blonde vampire who was left to watch as the two walked away. She wasn't jealous or hurt, she was _angry. _In fact, she'd never been angrier in her life. Every single fiber in her being wanted to confront Damon about Elena's mother and use it as an excuse to fight him on the issue of what she was _really _angry about. However, she made a promise to her friend that she would refrain.

It wasn't long before the auctioning started—around drink number three according to Claire. She was standing in the crowd watching a bunch of desperate middle-aged women fawn over the men up on the auctioning block. Carol was introducing each of the bachelors separately, earning applauses and hollers from the sea of women.

"And what do you do bachelor number three?" Carol asked the third bachelor she interviewed for the middle-aged women who ogled over him. The mayor's wife held out the microphone for the bachelor to respond.

"Yeah, I'm a plumber."

"Well, isn't that wonderful? We could always use more plumbers." Scattered laughs rode over the crowd as Carol quickly moved on. "Moving on. Number four, Alaric Saltzman. Wow, that's a mouthful." She laughed, and the crowd copied her sophisticated giggle. "What do you do, Alaric?"

"I'm a teacher at Mystic Falls High," the ruggedly handsome teacher answered, earning an approval from Carol.

"Oh! Beauty _and _brains, ladies! This one's a keeper! What do you teach?"

"History."

"History? Oh, well give us a fun fact about Mystic Falls? Something…crazy," Carol prompted and put the microphone up to Alaric's lips. As Claire watched from the crowd with a glass of scotch in her hand, she felt Stefan's hand reach out and touch her arm as he came beside her. Claire and Stefan could hear the buzz of Alaric's delayed answer over the speakers as Stefan smiled at Claire and she smiled back, letting him know that she was fine.

After a moment of awkward silence between the crowd, Carol saved Alaric and brought the microphone to her lips. "He's probably saving the best stories for his date." A soft chuckle moved over the crowd as Carol moved on yet again to their last contender. "And last but not least, Damon Salvatore. We don't…have much on you." Carol showed Damon the index cards she'd been looking over.

Claire scoffed. "I can come up with a few crafty words to put on that index card," she murmured to Stefan.

Up on stage, Damon just shrugged. "Well, I'm…tough to fit on a card."

Stefan spotted Elena in the crowd and waved to her, and Elena waved back to him with a soft smile. Beside Stefan, Claire just gagged and drained her drink, passing the empty glass to Stefan, who just cocked an eyebrow at the gesture.

"Well, do you have any hobbies? Like to travel?"

"Oh, yeah!" Damon exclaimed in the microphone. "L.A…New York...Couple years ago, I was in North Carolina, near the Duke campus, actually. I think…I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric?" Alaric and Damon turned to each other on stage as Damon rambled on. In the crowd, Claire and Stefan both stiffened. "Yeah, because I…I know your _wife _did. I had a drink with her once. She was…" Damon scoffed. "She was a great girl. Did I ever tell you that? She was…_delicious_. Mm."

"Oh…_shit_," Claire moaned quietly and she and Stefan immediately turned their heads to see Elena, who was slowly coming to the realization. Elena excused herself from the table next to Jenna and the next thing Claire and Stefan knew, they were all outside standing at the back entrance to the Grill.

"Elena," Stefan began as he walked outside, but Elena was frantic.

"He killed her? _Damon _was the vampire that killed her?" she asked.

Stefan shook his head. "I don't know what happened. Alaric said that they never found the body," he explained.

"But the likelihood of it is that Damon…_did _kill her," Claire admitted, crossing her arms. "At least, that's what Alaric thinks."

"Oh, my God…" Elena trailed off, trying to let it soak in. "Stefan…"

Stefan immediately tried to console her. "I know. I'm sorry…I wanted to tell you, but I just—I wanted to know more."

"I was feeling _sorry _for him," Elena admitted, throwing her hands up. "Hoping that this whole _Katherine _thing would…change him. I was so stupid."

"He doesn't know about the connection to you," Stefan admitted to her. "I thought about confronting him, but he's already so on edge—"

"Ugh!" Claire groaned, throwing her hands up. "I am _sick _of this mess! Sick of it! Damon Salvatore does not _deserve _our protection, Stefan, why do you keep giving it to him?"

Stefan turned to her sharply. "Because Elena is _not _the only one hoping that he can change, Claire!"

A long moment of silence passed before Claire just gave up. "I'm sorry, Stefan. But I seem to be the only one here that actually knows who the real Damon Salvatore is and that he's never going to change!"

She set off to go inside the building, but Elena's call brought her back. "Claire!"

"What?" the vampire snapped, turning around. Elena jerked her head forward and Claire turned hers to the side to see where Elena was staring. Stefan joined in on throwing his glance to where Elena was looking, and on the other side of the street was a man—the man that they saw outside of Trudie's house.

"Who is that, Elena?" Stefan asked, his voice quiet.

"He was outside of Trudie's house this morning," Claire murmured and tore her gaze away from the man across the street. "Elena, get inside. Now."

Elena hurriedly rushed inside, and made straight headway to the bathrooms to avoid seeing Jenna or anyone else in her fragile state. As Claire and Stefan rushed to find Elena to get her out of the Grill, Elena had come out of the bathroom sniffing when Damon blocked her from leaving.

"Whoa! Easy there. Buy a ticket like everyone else," he taunted her, smirking.

"Did you enjoy that?" Elena snapped at him, brushing past his useless innuendo. "Rubbing it in to Alaric Saltzman?"

Damon shrugged. "Well, actually—"

"Just as I was starting to think that there was _something _redeemable about you," the teenager snarled. It was then that Stefan and Claire interrupted, Stefan coming behind Damon and Elena and saying Elena's name softly.

When Damon saw his brother and his brother's best friend behind him, he knew something was deeply wrong. Claire held up at hand in front of Stefan's face.

"No, Stefan. I've been sitting on this for more than an hour. It's about time Damon realizes what he's done."

Damon sighed. "Am I…missing something, here?"

"Yes, actually, you are," Claire retorted, shrugging. "See, Elena and I went to go see her birth mother's friend today. But when we got home, Stefan told me something pretty interesting." Everything fell drop dead silent as Claire said the words slowly so that Damon could hear every single syllable. "_You _were the one that killed her."

Again, that same silence loomed, but this time, Damon just laughed. "That's _ridiculous. _I didn't kill Elena's birth mother."

"Really?" Elena asked from behind Damon, making him turn around. "Oh, right. Claire forgot to mention her name. It was _Isobel_." Elena watched as Damon's smile dropped from his face immediately and she fought back tears. "Go ahead. Reminisce about how you _killed _her."

Without waiting for Damon to say anything else, Elena brushed past the dark-haired vampire and began to power-walk outside. Stefan soon went after her after a disappointed glare towards Damon, and Claire and Damon were eventually the only two standing.

Damon sighed. "This…doesn't really help the whole…_angry _thing, does it?"

She didn't respond. Instead, in a flash of blind rage, her palm collided with Damon's face at a force that stung—even for a vampire. Damon kept his face turned to the side, his cheek stinging red but healing by the second. He held his jaw, basking in the shame that came along with the slap. Claire watched him as his blue gaze cut to her, studying her face as she let out a shaking breath.

Her voice was only but a whisper before she walked away. "That was for Christopher."

* * *

Stefan had taken Elena home after the man who had showed up at Trudie's and the Grill had interrogated her about leaving Isobel alone. When she finally agreed to it under Stefan's advisement, the human man threw himself in front of a moving truck and killed himself. Claire was given a full recap on the phone as Stefan took Elena back to her house, but she stayed at the Grill to have one more drink before she left to go back to the boarding house to most likely face Damon. She had learnt that Carol Lockwood won the raffle—not that it was a surprise, it was obviously rigged. And to think, it was the Mayor's wife. How indiscreet.

When she returned back to the house, the first thing Claire did was walk into the study and poured herself a glass of bourbon to keep the buzz still going. Being a vampire had its perks, but the downside of it was that they didn't stay buzzed for long. She desperately needed something to keep her mind off the mind-numbing pain she felt in her chest thinking about the fact that while she argued with Damon, helped Stefan, and saved Elena, she did nothing for herself but find a bunch of willing men and feed on them day and night. It was the only way she could keep herself from breaking apart—to deny it over and over again that the problem just…disappeared.

She could hear the sound of breathing in the study when she took a moment to herself; and though the fire was crackling in the parlor, there was another one lit, too. With her glass of bourbon still in hand, she walked into the study to find a dead body on the floor and Damon on the couch, watching the burning embers of the fire.

Claire sauntered into the room and eyed the dead body on the floor. It was Alaric's, the deadly History teacher with a nasty little secret and vicious vendetta. Her heels stopped right by the teacher's head, and it took only a moment for Damon to respond in a dull, uninterested tone.

"Go ahead," Damon said darkly, taking a sip out of his glass. Claire looked up at him. "Lecture me about what a…_bad _person I am. I've heard it all before."

Claire pursed her lips, and if he'd asked her to lecture him a few hours ago, she would've jumped at the chance to yell and scream in his face. She would've reveled in the sight of him doing nothing while she jerked him around and kicked and screamed. But now…after slapping him, she realized that it wasn't Damon who was the problem. Yes, she was angry that he lied, but that hole inside of her chest that wouldn't go away wouldn't magically disappear because she lectured Damon. It was useless.

Claire walked over to the couch and sat down beside the vampire. "I'll leave Stefan to that. It's been one hell of a day." A dark silence came over them and, for the longest time, the sound of the fire cracking was the only thing between them until Damon finally broke the ice.

"Katherine told me that we were going to do something…_exciting_," Damon began, his voice only but a murmur. Neither Claire nor Damon turned to face each other as he spoke. "Naturally, I was interested. When she brought me outside, I thought it would be one of our games for her to kill someone again. Except…well, Pearl and Anna were waiting with a very…_weak _Christopher." Damon let out a deep breath and took a sip of his bourbon. Claire's eyes glistened over as she stared at the fire over her crossed legs. "Long story short, Katherine turned him and drained some of my blood so he could complete the transition. The next day, I saw him get dragged into the tomb with the rest of the vampires."

"And you never said anything," Claire filled in the part of the story he left out. Damon merely took a sip of his bourbon. "Why?"

Damon scoffed. "The guy never _loved _you, Claire. It was an _arranged_ marriage."

"That never made it any less real, Damon. We were once in the same situation," she reminded him. Damon's head turned to her and watched her as she slowly turned her head to meet his gaze. "It wasn't your decision to make."

Their eyes were fixated on each other's for a while until Damon tore his gaze away and put his finished bourbon glass on the table beside him. "Well, there's nothing either one of us can do about it now. That tomb is sealed. There's no getting back in it. So if you don't mind, I'd like to put this past us and just get back to…well, being _us _again."

Claire's eyes lingered on him, watching Damon as he stared at the fire, the reflection in his eyes. She watched his eyes fill with sorrow and hurt, but there was no remorse. There never would be.

Claire sighed and pulled herself up from the couch, Damon's gaze never leaving the fire. She walked around him and placed her half-full bourbon glass on the table next to his drink.

"There was never an 'us', Damon," Claire said softly, her fingers lingering over the top of the bourbon glass. Damon moved his eyes from the fire to her lingering hand before she removed it and left the study, her heels signaling her departure from both him and whatever salvation they had left.

* * *

All day, Christopher wandered around Mystic Falls trying to find what he was looking for, but what a long-shot it was that Clarissa was in the same place as he was. He spent the entire day searching, but what he found was that he needed help. Help that he _knew _existed—that he had seen at the town square. If he was to return to his wife, he needed to find other vampires from the tomb.

A little past the town of Mystic Falls, deep in the woods, Christopher could see a dimly lit house standing alone. He walked up the long pathway to the house and immediately knocked on the door once he reached it. From inside the house, Christopher could see Bethanne, the woman he saw on the bench earlier with Harper, come up to the door and open it for him with a smile.

"Pearl!" she called out over her shoulder while inspecting Christopher. "It's Christopher."

Bethanne walked the other way and in her place, Pearl and Anna came out to greet Christopher, who took in a nervously deep breath. Pearl greeted him with a kind smile, but he wasn't sure he wanted to be with them. He wanted to be with _Clarissa, _he just didn't know where she was. Pearl was his best chance at finding out.

"I'm glad you found us, Christopher," Pearl welcomed.

Christopher sighed. "Please, Miss Pearl. Do you know where I can find her?"

"All in good time, Mr. Fell. All in good time," Pearl repeated with a smile. "First, why don't we get you inside? You can't be…looking like _that_ when you see your wife for the first time in years, can you?" Pearl asked, looking over Christopher's clothes and darkened mouth stained with blood from earlier in the morning. Christopher looked down at his clothes and Pearl called over her shoulder, "Ms. Gibbons, this gentleman is a friend of mine. May he come in?"

A human woman appeared behind the dark-haired vampire and smiled genuinely. "Any friend of Pearl's is a friend of mine. Please do. Come in," Ms. Gibbons invited. Christopher eyed the threshold of the doorframe he was and easily stepped inside to his relief. Pearl stepped aside for Christopher to come in.

"Annabelle, close the door, please," Pearl instructed her daughter as Christopher crossed the threshold and followed Pearl into the house with Anna closing the door right behind him.


	8. There Goes the Neighborhood

**Hey, everyone! I know I just updated this a week ago, but I needed to get this chapter out because it's probably _the _most boring episode in TVD's first season and I knew that if I didn't write it and get past it, there would be no getting past it in the future, so here it is! Glad to see you're all hanging in there with me. Enjoy the chapter and review at the end, please!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**There Goes the Neighborhood**

**Mystic Falls, 1865**

_Clarissa and Christopher walked down the brightly lit pathways in the midst of the town, their arms looped together. Silence washed over them for a long time, the only sound being the horses that created a background noise for them to focus on. _

_Christopher inhaled. "Your mother informed me that the Salvatores are attending our celebratory party next week." _

_Clarissa's eyes wandered around the people in the town square and she smiled. "Well, Father is quite fond of Giuseppe. It's no surprise. Besides, Stefan is my friend as well." _

"_Yes, but when Marianne said the Salvatores, she meant all of them," Christopher corrected his fiancée. Clarissa turned her head to look at him and he kept them moving without turning to look at her. _

"_You're worried I will cause some commotion with Damon?" Clarissa prompted. _

_Christopher finally turned to look at her. "That is not all I am worried about," he confessed, his eyes giving away what he was really insinuating towards. Clarissa stared at him, trying to decipher his double meaning, and when she figured it out, she just exhaled greatly and shielded her eyes. "Damon once told me how he felt," Christopher whispered to her. _

"_Damon is not aware of how he feels, himself, so how could he have told you?" Clarissa retorted, returning her blue eyes to Christopher's, who stayed silent. "He's…impulsive and reckless and…destructive." _

"_I would just like you to put my mind at ease, darling," Christopher pleaded, pulling them to a stop and turned them both so they were facing each other. "Nothing ever did happen between you two, did it? After all, you were the ones originally to be wed." _

_This was the time, Clarissa realized, that she should've come clean. The words should've left her mouth—the story should've been told. Instead, she stared at Christopher with hesitance and just shook her head. _

"_No. No, of course not, my love." A smile twitched at her lips, and Christopher let out a sigh of relief. "Damon Salvatore means nothing to me. You_ _are the one I am going to be with for the rest of my life, Christopher." _

_Her words were sweet, and somewhat true. Though her happiness with Christopher did not extent to a way that she wanted it to, she was starting to see a future. A future that she was content in. It was surely no way to enter into a marriage—to just be content on a relationship—but it had to do. _

_Christopher nodded slowly. "I do love you, Clarissa," he said slowly, his voice quiet. "Despite the fact that this is rushed, I…I honestly do love you." _

_Clarissa dreaded those words from the very moment she learned that she was being forced to marry Christopher Fell. Every time she wanted to say those words, she just couldn't. She would choke up, unable to get those three words out without a hitch. _

_So, instead, she settled upon nodding and leaned forward to give her fiancé a light kiss, one that told him how she felt without actually saying it. Did she love Christopher Fell? Maybe to some extent, she did. _

_Or, perhaps, she was just fooling herself. _

* * *

"This century has a very strange sense when it comes to looks," Christopher murmured as he studied himself and his new haircut in the hand mirror that Pearl had given him. His earlier look had apparently been too shabby for modern taste, as had the rest of the vampires. Anna had a hairdresser compelled and brought to the communal house in the woods so that the hairdresser could give each of them a modern bump. Christopher's hair, once a little long and wispy, was now short and gelled, creating a whole new persona for him.

"Well, I think you look wonderful, Christopher," Pearl voiced behind him. Christopher set down the hand mirror and turned to her with a sorrowful expression.

"Miss Pearl, I know there is a lot that I have to learn about these new times. But if you know where my wife is, you must tell me. I need to know that she is still out there—I need to _see _her," Christopher begged. Never did he think there would come a day he would have to beg to see his wife. But never did he think that he would become a creature of the night entrapped in an underground hole for nearly a century.

"Christopher," Pearl began in almost a condescending tone. "I can understand your impatience. But I need you to trust me. If you seek Clarissa before I've had a chance to speak with the Salvatore brothers—"

Christopher's head snapped up and his eyes became focused. "The Salvatore brothers?" he repeated, earning Pearl to stop in the midst of her sentence and sigh. "That's where she is, isn't she? With Stefan?"

"And Damon, yes," Pearl agreed, nodding once. "But I _need_ you to keep your patience just a little while longer. Please. I promise you, Clarissa isn't going anywhere."

A long silence passed between the two old vampires, and Christopher just shook his head once. "Miss Pearl, I'm very sorry if I've given you the wrong impression of my intentions," he began, slowly realizing why it was so important for Pearl to hide him. "I didn't come here to help you with seeking revenge on this town for what happened over a hundred years ago. I came to find my _wife_."

"And you will," Pearl promised Christopher, earning him to sigh. "Just give it a little more time. I'm sure Clarissa will be more than impressed if you show up on her doorstep and already know the ways of this glorious modern world."

Pearl gave a soft smile and before they could continue arguing, Harper joined them. Both Christopher and Pearl turned around as Harper entered the room with a shy smile.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, Miss Pearl, but Anna left this in the hallway," Harper told the dark-haired vampire, holding up the cell phone device. Pearl's smile brightened as she let a soft chuckle through her mouth.

"Ah, yes! This marvelous contacting device." Pearl's eyes moved over to Christopher, who was eyeing the mirror by his hand. "Christopher? How would you like me to show you what my daughter showed me the other night about this device? It's quite intriguing."

The offer was enticing, and seeing as Christopher had nothing better to do than wait for Pearl's instructions, he ended up nodding. "Why not, Miss Pearl?" he agreed, giving the lady vampire a smile.

Pearl gave him one in return and glanced over at Harper. "Harper, why don't you join us?" Harper nodded immediately, and in no time, they were all situated at the table, watching as Pearl held the device in her hand and began to show them all of the things that it could do. She went over the instructions Anna told her the night before, relaying them to both old-fashioned vampires. "And the keypad is for…texting, which is what you do when you want to avoid talking to someone."

Christopher made a face of approval as Pearl gave him the phone to examine for himself. "Inventors these days must be very intelligent to come up with a concept so useful," he praised as he pressed a button on the keypad accidentally.

As soon as the button was pressed, a voice appeared over the phone, making all three vampires jump in their seats. _"Anna! It's Jeremy. I haven't heard from you in a while…" _

Pearl and Harper both laughed at the device while Christopher eyed it, finding the device both confusing and exciting at the same time. All of a sudden, Anna appeared from behind Christopher and reached over him to grab the phone and immediately shut off the voice on the other side of the phone.

"I…I merely pressed a button…" Christopher shrugged in his defense, looking up at Anna.

"I was just showing Harper and Christopher what you taught me," Pearl told her daughter excitedly. "What a _marvelous _device!"

"Who was that?" Harper questioned the young vampire standing behind Christopher.

"Jeremy Gilbert," Anna responded reluctantly. Suddenly, beside Christopher, Pearl's smile dropped as Harper's extended from the other side of the bronze-haired vampire.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Harper teased. Christopher looked back at Anna waiting for an answer, but Pearl spoke before rising from her seat with a scoff.

"Of course not," answered Pearl for her daughter. Christopher and Harper watched as the dark-haired vampire walked to the threshold and spun around with a new, restrained smile on her face. Pearl gestured down to her new suit, eyeing Anna for an opinion. "What do you think?"

"Vey respectable," Anna praised.

"That's the goal," responded Pearl, looking down at the crisp suit. "I can't say that I miss corsets."

Anna smiled. "Susie Sunshine gave me her car keys…_and _her ATM card."

Pearl put her pocketbook on her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"I'll explain later." When Anna and Pearl began to leave the room, Frederick, one of the angrier, more impatient vampires who'd escaped from the tomb, appeared at the doorframe, leaning against it casually.

"Where are you going?" he asked, his voice dark and accusing.

"We have some business in town," Pearl responded. "We'll be back as soon as we can. I trust that you'll keep an eye on things?"

"So I'm the babysitter now?"

"Frederick, if this is going to work, we have to cooperate with one another."

Frederick nodded slowly and peered up at Pearl with reproachful eyes. "So you say."

Harper stood up from his seat to solve the conflict. "Christopher and I will watch things, Miss Pearl," he offered. Christopher looked up at Harper, but he didn't object to the offer that he set on the table.

Pearl turned around to see Harper and Christopher nodded to agree with the other vampire's compromise. "Thank you." She then turned back to Frederick, who was eyeing Harper with devilish eyes, and Pearl and Anna left the room without humoring Frederick again. Once they were gone, Frederick gave an evil stare towards Harper and Christopher before casually walking out from the threshold.

* * *

When Damon returned to the boarding house from a meeting with Liz Forbes, he instantly sensed that something was wrong. The house was empty, or so it was supposed to be. Stefan was with Elena and Claire was drowning her sorrows at the Grill with the unlimited supply of liquor. But when Damon entered the house, he could feel that someone was waiting for him.

He looked back and forth and followed the sound of unusual behavior in his ears. It was pulling him towards the parlor and its connecting room, where sure enough, a dark-haired, sophisticated vampire was waiting for him with her back turned.

"Hello, Damon," Pearl greeted.

"Ever hear of…knocking?" Damon quipped, coming to a halt a few feet away from the turned Pearl, who didn't move at his presence.

"An invitation wasn't necessary. I'm surprised that no living person resides here." Finally, she rose to her feet and turned around to face Damon, Anna standing beside her mother just a few feet away. "Is it just you and your brother?"

"And one annoyingly depressed blonde vampire," Damon added with a shrug.

Pearl hummed and narrowed her eyes. "Yes. Anna told me about Clarissa's return to Mystic Falls. She must be quite upset at you for keeping her husband's real location a secret all these years."

Damon's eyes wandered around the room and cut to Pearl. A sly, restrained smile slid across Damon's face. "You know, my brother and I have a different method for dealing with unwanted vampires. We kill them."

In the blink of an eye, Damon was standing right in front of Pearl with his hand locked tightly around the old vampire's throat. He squeezed as hard as he could, but it seemed to do nothing to faze Pearl. She merely just reached up and grabbed his wrist, twisting it to the side. Damon fought hard, but Pearl's strength was too much, and with a few grunts and a muttered expletive, he was thrown on the floor by the small beige couch. Pearl smiled down at him victoriously and viciously.

"Have a seat, Damon." The raven-haired vampire got up from his place on the floor and sat down on the couch to meet the eyes of Pearl and Anna. "I was hoping we could have a word."

Damon just relaxed back on the couch and gave Pearl a sour smile. "Sure."

It wasn't long before Pearl began to enlighten to the Salvatore vampire with the news that all of the vampires from the tomb have been released, causing Damon to grow increasingly stressed about the situation.

"We've taken up residence at a farmhouse outside of town," Pearl explained. "It'll suffice for now."

"All twenty-five vampires?" Damon questioned.

"Not all. Some. I imagine that a few already left town. Others are probably still in the woods, or like us, acclimating," responded Pearl, glancing up to Anna. Her eyes moved back to Damon, who was processing all the information he was given. "And while we're talking about the vampires who have come to us, I'll have you know that Christopher Fell arrived as well, looking for your dear Clarissa."

Damon turned to Pearl and spoke slowly, "So why haven't you sent him her way? Obviously you knew she was here."

Pearl's shoulders went up and down. "Anna and I have been preparing him for their reunion. And I thought it would give you a head start. Katherine always suspected there was more than meets the eye when it came to you two."

"Well, there's not," Damon shot her down, causing Pearl to eye him with suspicion. Damon ignored it and turned to Anna, who was pacing beside her mother. "How'd they even get out of the tomb?"

Anna shrugged. "I think that witch screwed up that part of her hocus-pocus."

"Oh." Damon's voice dripped with bitter sarcasm.

"I understand that the founding families still have a secret council?" Pearl questioned, and Damon just shrugged as an answer.

"And you're apart of it," Anna pointed out.

Damon scoffed. "That's ridiculous."

"I've been in Mystic Falls since the comet, Damon," Anna told the raven-haired vampire pointedly. "I'm up to speed."

"And so am I," Pearl tagged on. "And now that you've infiltrated the Council, I'll need to know _everything _they know. Starting with a list of all the Council members and their families."

"And everyone you've supplied with vervain," Anna added.

Pearl nodded. "Yes, _that _will have to stop immediately," she ordered. The fact that the two vampires had invited themselves into his home and made demands of him that he was less than willing to comply with had Damon growing more frustrated by the moment.

He narrowed his eyes at the mother-daughter duo and said skeptically, "What _exactly _are you trying to achieve?"

"Mystic Falls is our home, Damon," Pearl rationalized. "They took that from us. Our land, our home. It's time we rebuild."

"What, are you _crazy_?" Damon condescended, biting his lip. "That was 1864. Wake up, woman! The world has moved on!"

"As a reward, I'm willing to give you what you want most," Pearl compromised.

"I want _nothing_—"

"Katherine," Pearl interrupted him with one single, crisp word that cut to Damon's core. For a moment, he considered it, but then he saw right through the trick that Pearl was trying to play on him.

"You wouldn't even know where she was. You've been in the ground for the last century and a half," Damon accused.

"Katherine and I were best friends…_long _before we came to Mystic Falls, Damon," the other vampire retorted. "I know how she thinks. I know her patterns. I know where to find her."

Pearl watched as a flicker of emotional turmoil crossed Damon's face, but he just leaned forward on his knees and responded tersely, "I no longer have _any _desire to see Katherine _ever _again. And there's no way in _hell _I'm gonna play the role of your little minion."

Damon started to rise from his seat, but Pearl flashed up from hers and forced Damon back down on the couch, all done with niceties. "I'm not _asking _for your help, Damon. Finding Katherine was just a…mere _gesture _of kindness. The rest is non-negotiable."

Pearl flashed forward again, and this time, her eyes dug into Damon's eye sockets and showed no mercy as she quite literally clawed his eyes out so a thick coat of blood was on both of her thumbs. Damon grabbed her wrists and tried to pull her off of him, but the only thing that he was accomplishing was a loud groan that escaped his lips at the pain. Pearl hissed, her fangs elongating and her eyes growing bloodshot with snake-like veins slithering underneath. Thick streams of blood poured onto Damon's shirt as Pearl yanked him from the couch with her thumbs still in his eyes and tossed him onto the floor.

"I have 400 _years _on you, little boy," Pearl snarled. "I'll rip you from limb to limb without even blinking and you know it. I'll be in touch."

* * *

_The air was cold, but it was tolerable to the twenty-year-old girl, so she didn't complain. But going outside in the middle of the night had been her idea, anyway; so there was really no room to criticize. The pond beside her house wasn't frozen over, but it was far from swimmable. Clarissa thought back to the days when she would come out in the middle of the night, like she was doing at that moment, but she had a companion with her most of those times—Damon, of course. But in light of their ongoing five-year argument, all hopes of being friends again with Damon had faded away a long time ago. Now, Stefan was her replacement, and as much as she loved the boy like he was her own brother, she couldn't tell him everything. He was so young…so naïve, and so wrapped up with Katherine Pierce, it was disturbing. She had him under some sort of spell—Clarissa was sure of it. Nevertheless, Stefan was happier than he'd been in a long time._

_She wished she had the same kind of happiness. _

_The night was silent; it was her sole piece of solitude. In the midst of getting ready for her wedding, dealing with Christopher's family, and among other things, Clarissa had been swamped with people and plans. She rarely had any time to herself to think. Her twenty-first birthday would be just days after the wedding and would make sure that her deadline was met. She couldn't back out of the wedding with such short notice otherwise there would be consequences she couldn't deal with. Her parents were so proud of her for marrying Christopher, it seemed unfair of her to take away their happiness to suit her own selfish needs._

_Christopher's questions the other day had gotten to her in the deepest, darkest parts of her mind. She lied to him, there was no other word to explain what she did. She lied so blatantly and so well that she wanted to believe what she was saying, but she just couldn't because it wasn't true. There had been something going on between her and Damon—her best-kept secret. _

_She used to, with her former friend, sneak outside at night and throw stones into the pond. They would skip if you threw them just right, and after a few nights, Damon had taught her the correct way and she had become a prodigy of skipping stones. The nights were fresh in her memory, and as it seemed, she wasn't the only one. _

"_I wasn't aware that you still come out here." Clarissa turned around to face Damon approaching the pond, looking as if he'd just rolled out of bed. He cleared his throat. "I will leave, then." _

"_You can stay," she whispered, turning around to face the quiet pond. Damon looked back at Clarissa, her pale blonde hair a beacon in the moonlight. "It would be nice to be around a fresh face." _

_She barely felt it when Damon came beside her, exhaling largely. "A fresh face. Well, I suppose that is all I am now, after all. We rarely speak. Not without…reason, of course." Clarissa was silent, and Damon's eyes never left the open pond. "How is your fiancé?" _

"_He is well," Clarissa responded, her voice soft. "And Miss Pierce?" _

"_Delightful," Damon told her, earning a curt nod from the blonde beside him. Things fell silent, but Damon broke that silence for fear of it getting too far. "I really am quite surprised you still come out here. What with the wedding, you rarely have time for anyone else. Not even my brother, apparently." _

_Clarissa straightened. "I have been avoiding Stefan," she confessed, earning Damon's confused expression. It was all eased in her next words. "He keeps questioning me about our first fight. It seems no lie I spin has any effect on him. I am considering telling him the truth." _

"_I would prefer that you not," Damon said, his voice icy. Clarissa turned to him now, causing him to do the same. She looked at him questionably, earning him to clarify. "Things are already strained enough between my brother and myself because of our relationship with Miss Katherine. Learning about our past might upset him."_

_Clarissa studied him for a moment, but then, she realized. A small scoff escaped her lips. "Spare me your worry for your brother's feelings, Damon. You would only like me to keep the truth hidden so your beloved Katherine will not find out!" _

"_I am doing us both a favor by keeping it a secret," returned Damon at the same tone. She just turned her cheek, but he kept trying to get her attention. "How would you handle things if your fiancé found out?" _

_The girl before him fell silent, biting the inside of her cheek in a bad habit as she tried to stop the words she wanted to say—she would be pleased if he found out. Instead of saying those cruel words, she picked up her dress and turned, but it was too late. Damon had already seen through her like she was transparent._

"_Unless…" he trailed off, pulling her back. She kept her jaw locked. "Do you _want_ him to find out, Clarissa?"_

"_Don't be ridiculous," Clarissa said softly, straightening and narrowing her eyes. "He is already jealous enough that we were the ones originally set to be wed. Why would I add to that?"_

_She tried to walk away again, but Damon cut in front of her, stopping her from leaving. "You are not in love with him, are you?" _

"_What?" Clarissa whispered, trying to sound offended. "Damon—"_

"_I know what you look like when you are in love," Damon countered, his eyes roaming across her face. She jerked her head back in the slightest, examining his moving eyes. "You are not in love with him, are you?" he repeated, his hand finding the side of her face. He cupped it, tilting her head up to his. _

_Clarissa studied him carefully, trying to pick out what he was trying to achieve. Eventually, she settled upon gazing up at him and speaking in a soft tone. "I don't see what you are referring to. Christopher is wonderful and I care so very deeply for him. Just as you do with Miss Pierce." _

"_She…" Damon trailed off, trying to get the words off his chest, but Clarissa stopped him. _

"_Do not forget, Mr. Salvatore." Her hand moved up and grabbed his from her face, and she slowly moved it so that it dropped to his side. Whispering, she let her eyes drop to his lips. "We are no longer friends. We are enemies." _

_Damon watched as she moved past him, not even mumbling so much as a goodnight, and a look of hurt crossed his face as he pondered over her words. He was left standing underneath the moonlight, fearful that her words were actually true._

_Katherine Pierce stood on the deck of the Salvatore house, overlooking the pond beside the King's mansion, where Damon stood and Clarissa walked away from. She was overcome with jealousy upon hearing their conversation, and she came to realization that she had been right all along. Damon and Clarissa weren't just former friends, they were former lovers—lovers gone wrong, it seemed. Emily Bennett stood by her side, waiting for Katherine's order. _

"_What should we do, Miss Katherine?" Emily asked, her voice small. Truth be told, Clarissa King was the only one she actually liked in the new town of Mystic Falls. Although loyal to Katherine, she was never fond of vampires. Clarissa, a human, was genuinely kind, unlike her vampire master. _

"_Well," Katherine exhaled, straightening her shoulders in a defensive stance as she watched Damon return to the side of the river and bend down to grab a handful of stones. "Clarissa's wedding is less than a week away. It would be rude of me to ruin such a beautiful affair." Katherine's kind smile turned down, becoming dark and envious. "But I doubt having a marital tie will stop her from coming after my Damon." _

"_Is it a spell you want, Miss Katherine?" Emily asked sweetly, folding her hands across her lap. Katherine watched as Damon threw a stone at the pond before him so it skipped across the water three times. _

"_No, Emily," Katherine said, her voice sickeningly sweet. "I would much rather prefer my own method of torture." Katherine turned sharply to her witch. "After Clarissa King's wedding, she will be absolutely ruined." Her head turned to the side for just a moment to watch as the Kings' daughter walked inside of her house. "I'll make sure of it." _

* * *

As Claire poured another shot of tequila into her reused shot glass and ran out of liquid to fuel her depression, she felt the eyes of the bartender on her behind the slab. Without a word, she knocked back her drink and hissed at the strong taste as the bartender intently watched. She wouldn't lie, she was a _tiny _bit drunk, but wasn't it acceptable? She had stopped preying on men, but the tradeoff for that was to drink and drink and drink until the pain went away or dulled, at least. The only way she would really get the pain to go away was to turn off her emotions, but Stefan had thankfully prohibited her from doing so.

When she finished the shot, she knocked the shot glass down on the counter and slid the empty bottle to the bartender with a sly, drunken smile. She tapped the empty glass bottle promisingly.

"Do you mind fetching another one, buddy? I seem to be all _out_." Claire puckered her lips daintily.

The bartender shook his head. "I'm sorry, Miss King. But I think I'm going to have to cut you off now."

Claire frowned and raised her hand, pinching her fingers together so they were just inches apart. "Come on, just a _little _more?" She was using compulsion now, her eyes focusing in on the bartender's so he would do what she wanted. Sure enough, the bartender gave her a shy smile and took the empty bottle from the bar and went to grab another bottle from the other side of the bar. As Claire sighed deeply from the excessive amount of alcohol she'd consumed, a grumpy voice sounded beside her.

"Fancy meeting you here." Claire turned her head, but the second she did, she instantly regretted it. Damon sat down in the seat to the left of her, shades covering his eyes. He was cranky—that much she was aware of.

"Leave me alone, Damon," Claire murmured as the bartender returned to her with another bottle of hard tequila. She tilted the bottle and poured herself another shot, not minding the alcohol that spilled over the edge of her shot glass. "Today is _so _not the day for making amends. I just want to sit here and drown all of my sorrows in _solitude_."

"Well, don't let me stop you. Besides, I didn't come here to make amends," Damon grumbled and turned to the bartender, pointing at him. "Bourbon. _Neat._"

Once again, Claire downed the shot and shuddered at the amount of alcohol entering her system. Damon sighed heavily, his shades still over his eyes. The sight was intriguing and skeptical to Claire, who just cocked an eyebrow and asked, "What's with the shades, Tom Cruise?"

Damon turned his head to her and, after a small hesitation, sighed and removed his glasses. "Sorry. My eyes are a little sensitive today. Not that you would care."

Claire shrugged. "Yeah. You're right. I don't." The bartender came up behind the bar with Damon's bourbon and the vampire exhaled as he accepted the drink. As Damon took a sip of his bourbon and Claire poured herself another shot, a voice sounded a seat away from Damon, earning his attention.

"You two are new, aren't you?"

"Oh, on the contrary," Damon returned, his eyes moving to the side to see the woman a seat away. "We're…_very _old."

Beside him, Claire scoffed and returned the tequila bottle to a standing position. "Speak for yourself, Grandpa."

The woman ignored Claire's comment, shamelessly flirting with Damon and using Claire as just a piece of leverage to up her conversation. "I haven't been gone that long. I would remember someone who looked like you."

"Yeah?" Damon prompted, sighing. "Where'd you go?"

"Around, about."

Damon chuckled. "Been there." He brought his bourbon glass to his lips and drained most of the alcohol from the crystal glass. Claire was beside him, pouring one drink after another.

"I love to see a man drown his sorrows. It's so…sexy," the woman commented, straightforward.

Claire peered out beside Damon and raised her shot glass in the air towards the woman. "_Yes, _but a woman drowning her sorrows is _much, _much sexier."

Damon's hard, icy eyes drifted towards Claire and watched as she knocked the shot back. When she returned to a leveled plane, she locked eyes with Damon and gave him an innocent, drunken smile, causing Damon to just shake his head at her and turn back to the woman on the other side of him.

"It's more like nursing my wounds. And you?"

"Well, I was supposed to be interviewing for the bartender job, but, um, I _think_ the manager blew me off."

"Well, that's not very nice," Damon murmured.

"Yeah. Last time I was in town, I slept with her boyfriend."

"Well, that's not very nice, either."

"It happens," the woman defended herself with a shrug. The blonde vampire beside Damon began to cough and laugh at the same time, choking on the mixture of her alcohol and her laughs. She was waving her hand in front of her face in the middle of her fit, but before Damon could intervene, another female voice sounded behind them.

"Kelly?" Jenna exclaimed, coming up to the bar with a pleased, surprised smile on her face. The woman at the bar, Kelly, turned her head and met Jenna with the same surprised smile. "Kelly Donovan!"

Kelly got out of her chair and the two women practically squealed at the sight of each other with huge grins on their faces. They hugged as a greeting until Jenna pulled away and said happily, "I heard you were back in town!" Her eyes drifted to Damon at the bar. "She used to _babysit _me."

"And then I used to _party _with her," Kelly added, tilting her head towards Jenna. At the bar, Damon placed his head on his hand and leaned back, a sick smile on his face.

"This woman was crazy," Jenna stated to Damon.

"Not as crazy as you!" Kelly defended.

"Ha. Not anymore," Jenna admitted sadly, but her eyes caught Claire pouring herself a shot. "Oh. Hey, Claire."

Claire looked up from pouring her shot and gave Jenna a small smile. "Morning, Jenna."

Jenna frowned. "It's five o'clock in the evening."

All heads turned to her, but the blonde just shrugged. "Whatever." And the tequila was knocked back into her mouth mercilessly.

Once they finished watching Claire knock back her shot, Kelly turned to Jenna with a smile. "Well, sit! Drink!"

"Uh, I shouldn't…" Jenna objected. "I'm responsible now. Haven't you heard?"

"Well, take a night off. It's good for the soul," Kelly suggested, sitting down in the seat next to Damon.

"_Great _for the soul," Damon tagged on, lengthening his words. Jenna, who was obviously longing to sit down, finally gave into her temptation and took a seat beside Kelly, sighing.

"This is _not _gonna end well," Jenna noted with a small laugh.

Damon hummed under his breath. "Can't wait." And the three raised their glasses in cheers.

* * *

_The King mansion was filled with guests that they were entertaining for the celebration of the marriage of Clarissa King and Christopher Fell. Almost the entire town was attending the pre-ceremonial dinner, including the infamous Salvatore brothers._

"_Damon," Giuseppe murmured to his son as they entered the King's mansion for the celebration. "I expect you to be on best behavior with Clarissa." _

_Damon cleared his throat. "You won't have to worry, Father. I'm sure she'll be avoiding me all night." _

"_Good," Giuseppe chirped, but his word was cold and heartless. As far as he was concerned, though, Clarissa and Damon had just been in a terrible fight and there was no recovery for it. For the longest time, Giuseppe was disappointed in Damon for ruining the one thing that could bring the Salvatores and the Kings to union, but Clarissa and Damon couldn't be in the same room without causing commotion in front of everyone. If Amelia were still around, there was no doubt that she and Stefan would've taken Damon and Clarissa's places, but she wasn't, which rid all hope for Giuseppe and even Edward King. _

_Now, Edward and his wife had to deal with unionizing with Thomas and Honoria Fell through the marriage of their children. He wasn't all that excited about it, but like Giuseppe, there was nothing that could be done. _

"_I'm going to find Clarissa and congratulate her," Stefan mumbled. Damon watched as his brother left his side, glum over the fact that Katherine Pierce had agreed to accompany Damon to the dinner instead of Stefan. Just as Damon watched his brother take off, Miss Katherine happened to arrive at Damon's side. _

_Katherine sighed heavily. "Ah, I think this shall be a lovely wedding. Don't you, Damon?" _

_In the midst of the crowd, Damon caught sight of Clarissa and Christopher standing together, conversing with George Lockwood and his wife. He felt sick at the sight, like he wanted to kick, scream, shout, and do everything humanly possible to stop the wedding from happening. But Katherine, a jealous creature by nature, expected a satisfying answer. _

"_Yes, Katherine. It should be a…lovely affair," Damon agreed with a small smile as they began to merge into the crowd. Katherine's grip tightened on him. _

"_Oh, Damon. Your longing is quite unattractive," Katherine sighed. Damon threw a glance to her and raised an eyebrow._

"_Longing? What do you mean?"_

"_I mean your longing for your beloved Clarissa." Katherine's jealousy dripped with venom from her words. _

_Damon brought them to a stop in the middle of the crowd and insisted upon lying. There was no hope for him and Clarissa King—why ruin everything good to him for a girl who hated every fiber of his being? "Katherine, I don't have the slightest idea of what you are referring to."_

_Katherine's innocent doe eyes swept across the room and she plastered a smile on her face. "Well, never mind my words, then. It does not matter, anyway. I actually feel bad for Clarissa, what with her marrying Christopher. She'll be so very dearly unhappy." _

_Katherine's light and airy words were sickening and confusing to the eldest Salvatore. As the young brunette tried to pull him out to the rest of the crowd, Damon stopped her. "Wait a moment, Katherine, what do you mean?" _

_The lovely brunette looked over at Damon and cocked her head. "Absolutely nothing, my darling. Come. Let's dance!" _

_But Damon didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Katherine pulled his arm and led him out to the small amount of couples swaying back and forth on the dance floor, but Damon couldn't shake Katherine's words. His eyes lingered on the beautiful blonde the entire night, worried as to what Katherine was implying. _

* * *

"I hate this house," Frederick complained aloud on the couch in the living room. Beside him, his vampire lover, Bethanne, knotted her eyebrows.

"It's better than the tomb," she presented.

"I didn't stay locked up for 145 years to end up locked in _here_."

"Maybe you should quit complaining," Harper propositioned on an armchair just across the couch where Frederick and Bethanne were. Beside him, Christopher sighed and took a sip out of the strong alcohol he had in the glass in his hand.

"Maybe…_everyone _here should quit complaining. It's not as if you all have a wife to return to…" Christopher mumbled, bringing the alcohol to his lips. Frederick's attention turned from Harper to Christopher on a dime.

"When are you going to stop moaning about your darling Clarissa?" asked the complaining vampire, earning Christopher to cut his gaze to Frederick as he stood. "You do realize that she's been out and about for a century and a half thinking you were _dead_. Are you really that _stupid _enough to think that she's waited for you all these years?"

This brought a rage out of Christopher that no one wanted to see. The alcohol glass suddenly found itself on the table beside him and he was facing Frederick head to head, his jaw squared.

"How about you just stop complaining and make everyone else's life easier, Frederick? Pearl has made her instructions clear. No one's to leave the house."

Frederick's eyes narrowed. "You gonna stop me?"

"Let it be, Frederick," Bethanne voiced behind him. "You heard what Pearl said."

"I don't care what Pearl said," Frederick responded, his eyes locking stares with Christopher. "What you got, boy?"

The question was obviously useless—Christopher was turned merely a day before being trapped in the tomb. Frederick was older, and therefore stronger by definition. But instead of Christopher being the one who did something to shut Frederick up, it was Harper who flashed out of his seat and pushed Frederick back onto the couch. The vampire recoiled and attacked Harper, pinning him to the nearest wall.

"Try that again," Frederick snarled. But it wasn't long before a third party, who gripped Frederick's throat and forced the violent vampire off of Harper, interrupted their fight.

"Back off!" Pearl demanded as she shoved Frederick off of Harper. "Back off. We don't fight each other. Those are the rules."

"And I'm tired of the rules. I want out of this house. Why can't we go into town?" Frederick breathed hurriedly.

"Eventually," Pearl answered him with a stern voice. "But for now, we have to keep a low profile."

"No one knows who I am!"

"The Salvatore brothers do," retorted Pearl. Frederick scoffed.

"And I wish to hell I could run into them. They're the reason we were caught in the first place," Frederick spat vindictively, but it didn't matter. Pearl was the strongest vampire in the whole house, and what she said was practically the law.

Or, at least, that's what she thought it was, anyway. Though Frederick had been thoroughly embarrassed by Pearl, it didn't stop him from taking Bethanne and heading for the door the second Pearl was out of his sight. They opened the door quietly and began to sneak out like a couple of high school teenagers, but they were eventually caught.

"Where are you going?" Harper asked as he and Christopher caught sight of the two vampires exiting the house. Bethanne whipped around, surprised, and Frederick just sighed.

"Bethanne and I are going out for a bit. Hit the town. Kick up our heels," Frederick told them. Christopher crossed his arms at the cocky vampire, and Harper stepped forward.

"But we're not supposed to leave," Harper objected. "Miss Pearl made that _very _clear."

Frederick stepped forward and practically spat in Harper's face, relaying the same words he'd said to Christopher earlier. "You gonna stop me?" Harper said nothing. "I didn't think so."

With a smug smile, Frederick turned on his heel and left the house with his girlfriend, leaving Harper and Christopher inside. Once Frederick had left the house, Christopher stepped forward towards the door.

"Wait, where are _you_ going?" Harper asked worriedly, fearing he had another traitor on his back. Christopher sighed and turned back to Harper.

"Well, someone has got to go after them, correct?" Christopher proposed as he opened the door for himself. "Tell Pearl what happened and that I have gone out to retrieve them before any damage can be done."

Christopher left, and soon after, Harper did what he asked.

* * *

"So, the thing about cherries…" Damon trailed off as he twisted a cherry stem in his mouth. "You have to…"

Kelly held up a finger to Damon's lips and shook her head. She produced her own cherry stem from her mouth, holding the tied stem between her teeth. Damon growled seductively.

"Oh, my _goodness_…" Damon moaned as he leaned forward and took the tied stem from Kelly's teeth and brought it to his own mouth, earning a soft chuckle from Kelly's lips. "That's amazing. You were quick."

The sexy actions made the woman beside Kelly just sigh heavily and walk around the two vulgar drunken adults over to Claire, who was pouring one drink after another and so on and so forth.

Jenna took a seat beside Claire and sighed. "So…what's got you down?" Elena's aunt asked. Claire extended the tequila bottle to Jenna and Jenna took it graciously, pouring herself a shot.

Claire sighed. "Well…let's just say it's…_super _complicated." Jenna ad Claire bumped glasses and downed their shots, feeling the burn afterwards. When they recovered from the sour shot, Jenna hissed and spoke again.

"Complicated is my middle name," Jenna returned, earning Claire to shoot Jenna a drunken smile.

"All right, fine. Bottom line is, my husband disappeared a while ago and I could've done something, but instead, I was forced to let him go." Claire shrugged and began to pour herself another shot, but Jenna stopped her with her mouth dropped on the floor.

"Wait, you're _married_?" Jenna asked in disbelief. Claire scoffed.

"Uh huh."

"When did you get married?" the adult pushed further. Claire lied smoothly without blinking twice.

"Oh, a _long, _long time ago. Feels like forever. I…guess it kind of has been," she mumbled and sniffed her drink, but she felt like it was doing nothing to her. Despite the fact that she had kept herself busy with drink after drink and entertaining man after man that came up to her and started conversation with Damon just a seat away from her, nothing was helping her situation. Claire watched as the clear liquid sloshed around in the glass and some spilled over the edge onto the counter.

Jenna just shook her head. "God, Claire. I'm…sorry."

Claire gave Jenna a sad smile and shook her head. "It's okay, I guess. Not much I can do about it now."

The two women were silent for a while and Claire exhaled, swiveling herself on the bar stool so she faced the crowd of the Grill. Jenna's mouth twitched before she asked a valid question. "What's his name?"

Claire opened her mouth to say Christopher's name, but her world suddenly came to a screeching halt when she saw someone fight his way through the crowd. The sight was like a dream to her, but she knew that she was very much in reality. At first, a million doubts went through her head all at once, but when he stopped and finally caught sight of her, coming to a halt as well, she knew that it was real. _He _was real.

"Christopher," Claire breathed out, and Jenna turned her head in the direction that Claire was looking in. Damon, who was standing beside Jenna entertaining Kelly, heard the name and instantly began to panic. He thought it was a fluke—that Christopher wasn't really there, but knowing that the vampires were out of the tomb and finally seeing Christopher in the crowd was enough to get him to realize what was happening. He watched as Claire immediately slid out of her seat, still drunk but now sobering because of the sight she'd witnessed.

"Clarissa?" Christopher asked himself, seeing the blonde vision before him. She was making his way towards her, and he stepped forward, as well, all thoughts of finding Frederick and Bethanne in the facility slipping away from him without a second thought. The two of them finally reached each other and came to a stop, examining each other's facial features to confirm.

"Oh, my God," Claire breathed, her chest tightening. "Oh, my God. It's you. It's really you."

"Of course it's me." Christopher nodded, a smile twitching at his lips at the sight of his long-lost wife standing in front of him. "I have been looking for you everywhere, Clarissa."

He could see the corners of her eyes start to water, and she stepped forward and touched his face, her breath catching at the touch. Christopher reached up and his fingers touched the back of her hand, the two of them standing nearly inches from each other. The sight was surreal, but it was right in front of her. All it took was one step and Claire was in Christopher's arms in a loving embrace, one to make up for all the lost time. They held onto each other, Claire's arms around his neck and Christopher's around her waist. No one else, it seemed, mattered to either of them.

Damon watched as the couple consoled each other by the entrance of the Grill, and he bit down on the inside of his cheek at the sight. So much for Pearl wanting to give him time. Beside him, Kelly looked in the direction he was staring and scoffed.

"What is it?" Kelly asked. On the other side of Damon, Jenna grabbed her stuff and began to exit the facility.

Damon turned to Kelly and tried to ignore the fact that the blonde vampire he'd spent the last century loving and hating all at the same time was now emotionally and physically unavailable to him. He hummed at the slutty woman in front of him and decided to use it straight to his advantage.

"Nothing, nothing." He shook his head and gave Kelly a signature smile. "What do you say we move this party elsewhere?"

A glint of want flashed in Kelly's eyes, and Damon had no doubts about her answer.

* * *

_The wedding had finally come, and the town was reeling over the union of the two Founding Families. Everyone had shown up to the Fell's mansion for the ceremony, including the Salvatores. But Giuseppe had told Damon that he mustn't go to the ceremony, seeing as he was so sure that Damon would cause an unnecessary scene and ruin the entire wedding and embarrass the Salvatore name._

_Damon had intended upon staying home—he thought it would be best for everyone, even him. But thinking over the celebratory dinner and Katherine's cynical words, Damon had a bad feeling about the wedding. He had a bad feeling about…everything, in general. Katherine may have tried to coax him into telling her what really went on with him and Clarissa and, though she failed miserably, that seed of doubt she planted in Damon's head regarding his ex-best friend's future husband kept Damon fidgeting. _

_He had to warn her. He had to at least try to. There was a pit in Damon's stomach that just churned thinking about the wedding and how happy everyone would be that the two were getting married. Katherine's words came back to him, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Katherine's words were true. He knew Clarissa would be unhappy, and he wasn't saying this because he wanted to be with her. Damon had a terrible feeling that she was making a grave mistake. He might've hated her, but he didn't want her to marry a man she didn't love._

_He had to stop it. _

_The Fell's mansion was easy to slip into without being noticed, but it was proven to be a challenge to stay under the radar. Michael Gilbert, Jonathan Gilbert's son, spotted him as Damon tried to round the corner to the study, where he knew the bride would be kept. _

"_Damon!" Michael bellowed, causing Damon to widen his eyes and look around to see if anyone had heard the shout. The drunken Michael Gilbert came up and smiled at Damon. "Come to see this _beautiful _wedding, haven't we?" _

_Damon let out a small laugh. "Yes. Yes, I have. I just could not resist it. If you'll excuse me…" _

_Damon left the drunken Gilbert son to himself and was thankful that he didn't come after him. Michael Gilbert was the product of Jonathan Gilbert's first marriage, where his wife died giving childbirth. Now, Jonathan Gilbert, a single man, was pining after the woman who ran the town's apothecary, Pearl. Michael was a terrible drunk, but his father was too insane to notice. Everyone in the town just disregarded Michael's very existence. _

_When Damon finally made his way to the study, he opened the sliding doors and all conversation came to a halt upon seeing him. Honoria Fell and Marianne King were standing around their daughter, who was dressed from head to toe in the purest form of white. Her blonde hair accented the white dress, he tip of her braid touching her ribcage. _

"_Damon?" Marianne asked with confusion lining her voice. There was no doubt in Damon's mind that Edward and Giuseppe had come up with the idea of Damon staying at home on their own. _

_Damon gave a small smile to the lovely Mrs. King and stepped inside the room. "Good afternoon, Mrs. King. Mrs. Fell. May I have a moment alone with your daughter?" Damon asked politely. _

_Clarissa was eyeing Damon, and as soon as Damon asked about a moment of privacy, the two women surrounding her looked up for any hint of an answer on her face. Clarissa cleared her throat and looked between the two women. _

"_It's…all right. Just a moment, please." Clarissa turned to Damon with her hands across her stomach and they both waited as Honoria and Marianne left the room with a silent stare to Damon. Once they were gone, the study door was closed, leaving them with the ultimate privacy. Clarissa sighed. "What is it, Damon?" _

"_Clarissa, please," Damon begged, shaking his head. "You should not be going through with this wedding." Clarissa turned her head and sighed, as if she expected it from him, but Damon wasn't willing to give it up. "Please! This isn't about you and me, Clarissa, this is about you_ _and your happiness—"_

"_My happiness?" Clarissa scoffed, turning to him abruptly with hard, angry eyes. "Since when have you ever cared about my happiness? All you want is to _destroy _it! You cannot stand to see me happy and when you do, you take it from me! That's all you've ever done!" _

"_How can you say that?" Damon growled. "I have come here today against my father's wishes to tell __you that I _want _you to be happy. But he can't give that to you and we both know it." _

"_On this day, you choose to be so selfish?" Clarissa snapped, clenching her fists. The bodice on her was so tight, she felt like it would snap from the rage she experienced. Damon could see the anger flash in her eyes, and he instantly began to regret ever disobeying his father. "You hate me much more than I ever _imagined _you would! To come here today and accuse me of not being happy with my fiancé if I marry him like I vowed to? To ask me to give up the one chance at a content life...?" She shook her head at him in angry disbelief, and then began to point to the door. "Get out! Get out, get out, get out!"_

_The yelling had gotten so out of control that the doors slid open to reveal Edward King and Giuseppe Salvatore, eyes widening at the turnout of Damon and Clarissa in the same room. _

"_Clarissa, what's going on?" Edward asked coldly as he entered the room with Giuseppe on his tails. Spying Damon, Edward looked at Giuseppe. "I thought you told your son to stay home!" _

"_I did," Giuseppe said angrily "Damon?" _

_Damon looked over at Giuseppe and could see the disappointment and anger all in his father's eyes. It was nothing different than how Giuseppe looked at him the rest of the time, but Damon couldn't stand to see it anymore. He just shielded his eyes from his father and turned on his heel to walk out. Clarissa, Edward, and Giuseppe stared after him as he left, but he had earned the attention of everyone in the Fell household by now, which included his brother and Katherine, who had come together. _

_Once Damon was gone, shamefully walking away, Katherine gave a frustrated sigh and peered into the study to see everyone's beloved Clarissa. She was so angry, it bubbled over inside of her. Katherine had tested Damon; she tried to see if he would take her bait and try and talk Clarissa out of the wedding because Katherine was certain Damon had feelings for her. _

_But after Katherine gave Clarissa just enough amount of time to be happy to take it away from her? Oh, Damon would never feel for her again. She would see to that. _

* * *

"How did you even get out of the tomb?" Claire asked in disbelief as she and Christopher sat down on a bench out in the middle of the night in the town square. She pulled Christopher down with her, their hands entwined.

Christopher's shoulders shrugged. "I…have no idea. There were these…people that had come into the tomb. This…_commotion_, of some sort. There was a scream, and the next thing I knew, I smelt blood. I finally gathered enough strength to finish off what was at my disposal and then I got out of the tomb. I have no idea why the seal broke."

Claire bit her lip, feeling incredibly guilty. She knew exactly what Christopher was talking about, and those 'people' he spoke of happened to be her, Damon, and Stefan. Now that she knew the seal was never back on the tomb door to begin with, her entire reason for leaving Christopher behind was null and void.

"But it doesn't matter now." Christopher squeezed Claire's hand seeing her distress and smiled at her. "I've been staying with the other vampires because I thought Pearl could help find you for me, and…well, as grateful as I am to her for teaching me the ways of this new world, I have you now."

Claire looked down at their hands and smiled, but that hole inside of her chest just deepened at the guilt. For a century and a half, she had been so unfaithful that it was nauseating. Now that Christopher was out and here with her, she felt even guiltier for being the way she was. He looked at her like she was the most innocent girl in the world when, really, she was far from it.

She looked up at him and tried to get off the topic, finding it was just digging a hole inside of her body that she didn't care for. "Pearl's set up a house for the rest of the vampires?"

Christopher nodded and sighed. "Yes. I suppose that they're trying to reclaim Mystic Falls as their rightful home because of the hell they'd been through. It's not surprising."

"Hardly," Claire snorted, tilting her head back and forth. She exhaled and just looked off into the crowd of townspeople walking in the middle of the night. "Well, Stefan really won't be happy about this," she muttered and then turned to Christopher. "Which reminds me—"

"You're…going to tell me that you're staying with Damon and Stefan in Mystic Falls, aren't you?" Claire nodded. "Yes. Pearl informed me this morning. I tried to go back to the original Salvatore house when I first got out of the tomb, but it was torn down."

Claire smiled. "Well, they have a new home now. The boarding house." She paused, pursing her lips, but then she saw something on Christopher's leg. It was his hand, and the wedding ring was exhibiting a glare of light at the angled it was positioned. Claire reached over and grabbed his hand, examining the ring in the dim streetlight. Blue gemstones radiated in the band's width. It was confusing to her, especially since she was sure his wedding ring was studded with diamonds. "What's this?" she murmured.

Christopher straightened and blew out a long breath of air. "I…I haven't the slightest idea. I think it protects me from the sun. I could have sworn that my wedding ring had diamonds embedded but—"

"They're lapis lazuli," Claire whispered, and she looked up at Christopher with her enticing blue eyes of a lighter color than the gemstones. Suddenly, a light laugh escaped her mouth. "Oh…Emily Bennett. God. If she ever possesses Bonnie again, I'll have to remember to thank her."

Christopher hummed under his breath, but as his thumb brushed over Clarissa's knuckles, he frowned and pulled her hand up to him. It was her left hand, that much he was aware of, but she wasn't wearing her rings. The thought kicked him in the chest, but he realized quickly that it wasn't fair to her. Claire pulled her hand away from him as she could see the realization cross his face. She ducked her head, shameful, and put her hands in her laps.

"Christopher, I—"

"Clarissa, you don't have to explain anything to me." Christopher sighed, shaking his head. "You thought I died in that church for an entire century. I didn't…expect you to…"

Claire turned to him and shook her head. "No. No, please don't think that I've…_moved _on or anything." She scoffed. It was a bit of a lie, but she needed to tell him whatever he needed to hear. She felt so insanely guilty that she was sure it'd eat her up alive, but she didn't want to lose Christopher so soon after getting him back. It may have been an arranged marriage that she didn't want to go through with, but over time, it had grown to become as real as it got. "If I knew you were in that tomb, I would've never rested until I got you out. Believe me."

"I believe you." Christopher nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she was able to get the words out, her phone rang in her pocket. Christopher jumped, but Claire just tilted her body and grabbed her phone from her back pocket. Stefan's name was on the screen, so she answered it without hesitation.

"Hey, Stefan. What's up?" Christopher watched as Claire listened intently on the other side of the phone, and she widened her eyes. "Oh, my God. Yeah. I'll…uh…I'll be right there." She ended the phone call and stood up from the bench.

"What's going on?" Christopher asked, standing up, too. Claire shook her head and ran a hand through her blonde hair while she shrugged.

"I…I have no idea. Stefan just called and said that two vampires broke into the house. Vampires from the tomb."

Christopher was silent, thinking to himself, but then he realized. Two vampires, out and about around town. "Frederick and Bethanne," Christopher muttered, disappointed.

Claire looked up at him, confused. "Did you know they were attacking?"

Christopher shook his head. "No. The reason I came out tonight was to look for them. They took off against Pearl's wishes, but…well, seeing you distracted me. They must have known you were there so I'd be preoccupied when they attacked."

Claire processed the information, but it was nothing useful. She just sighed. "Well…come on. Let's get back to the boarding house." Christopher exhaled and nodded, but she thought she saw a hesitation in his eyes. "Unless you'd rather go back to Pearl's…"

Christopher looked down at her, eyebrows raised. "Of course not. As I said before, I wanted Pearl to help me find you. Once I did, I wasn't going to stay."

Claire and Christopher eyed each other for a long time before Claire nodded. "Okay, then. Let's go."

* * *

When they finally reached the boarding house, it wasn't long before Damon and Stefan revealed that Bethanne was dead to Christopher and Claire. Upon learning such information, Christopher was forced to return back to Pearl's to tie up loose ends before coming back to the boarding house with Clarissa. Stefan was on the phone with Elena to check up on her while Damon and Claire both tried to move the dead body to the fireplace to incinerate it.

"So how long did you know about the tomb vampires being out?" Claire asked Damon as they carried the body over to the fireplace and dropped it in front of the flame. Damon looked up at her, raising his eyebrows in that Damon-like way. "And don't you dare lie to me this time."

Damon sighed. "Since this morning." Her frown turned into a straight grimace. "Oh, don't look at me with those judgy little eyes. You were wallowing and Pearl said she wanted to set up a _lovely _reunion."

Claire crossed her arms. "Have I mentioned how much I despise you and your life's mission to make my happiness obsolete?"

"Vaguely. Stefan!" Damon turned to his brother who had just ended the phone call with Elena. Damon gave the bronze-haired vampire a sour smile and just said, "Could you help us out a little bit?"


	9. Let the Right One In

**Hey everyone. So I didn't plan on updating this until next week but I'm at the San Diego Comic Con and I have absolutely nothing better to do while I wait for TVD's panel. I already had this pre-written so why not upload it, right? Don't worry, updates for other stories will return. I've got half of _Hurricane's_ 5th chapter done. **

**But enjoy this! Wish me luck...I'm gonna be here for a while.**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Let the Right One In**

The outside world was ruthless. Thunder roared in the sky, lightning flashed violently, and Mystic Falls was experiencing the beginning of the first storm of the upcoming winter. After Damon, Claire, and Stefan got rid of Bethanne's body, Stefan told Damon that, first thing in the morning, he would tell Elena about the break in. Meanwhile, Claire was up in her room, digging through her closet that she had put all of her useless boxes into, where she kept things from over the decades. She'd been through that box once to get her 1950s costume, but now she was in there for a different reason.

"What are you doing?" Stefan asked at the threshold of her room as he watched her hunt through her boxes, tossing useless garbage to the side. Claire sighed.

"I'm looking for something," she murmured, lifting up a book to see if it was underneath it.

Stefan walked into her room as a roar of thunder sounded overhead. After it passed, Stefan was at her side and he brushed his fingers over the items she tossed onto her bed. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm trying to find—"

"This?" a new voice said, and Claire and Stefan turned to see Damon at the threshold of her room, holding in his fingers two rings—her engagement ring and her wedding band. Claire took a moment, but upon realizing that Damon had something she wanted, she realized that it couldn't be good.

"Give it back, you _asshole_," she snapped, almost afraid of what he might ask for in return. But he couldn't say anything with Stefan around.

"Wait, why and _how _do you even have that?" Stefan asked, raising his eyebrows. Damon shrugged and walked into the room, clenching the rings in his hand.

"Well, this morning, after Pearl told me that Christopher was back, I figured you'd want these." Damon shrugged, unclenching his fist in front of Claire to reveal the rings. "Thought I'd save you some time."

"How thoughtful of you, Damon," Claire taunted, grabbing the rings from the palm of his hand. "I'll be sure to write you a thank-you note. Now get the hell out of my room."

Damon pursed his lips and watched as Claire just held the rings in her hand. "Well…aren't going to put it on?" he questioned, and she peered up at him. He was testing her, seeing what she'd do. His voice was so sickeningly normal that Stefan didn't suspect a thing. But if Damon wanted her to put it on, she'd put it on. If he wanted to screw with her, she'd screw right back.

With a sour smile, Claire slipped the engagement ring and wedding band onto her left ring finger and waved it in front of Damon's face to see. Damon's smirk stayed on his lips, but it grew bitter. Satisfied, the blonde turned to her best friend beside her.

"You know, I'm going to go get some blood. This incoming storm is making me hungry." Claire turned to Damon next, her eyes hardening. "I want you _out _of my room," the female vampire scolded and brushed past Damon with a hard bump on the shoulder.

Once Claire was out of the room, she stopped in the middle of the hallway and took a deep breath. The additional rings she'd put on were making her nervous and uneasy, so she took her shaking delicate fingertips and slid the rings off of her ring finger and slipped the set into her pocket.

_Damon Salvatore, that bastard, _Claire thought with a scoff and just continued on her mission to get something to drink.

Back in Claire's room, Stefan and Damon were left alone with each other upon Claire's departure. "She's so _bossy, _isn't she?" Damon _tsk_ed.

Stefan sighed. "Why can't you just let her be happy for once, Damon?" the brother asked, earning Damon to raise an eyebrow. "I mean…hiding the truth from her for a _hundred _and fifty years and then taking her wedding rings? There's got to be a line _somewhere."_

"Spare me the lecture, Stefan," Damon chided, glaring at his brother. "Claire already slapped me for keeping the truth from her."

"And did you apologize?" Damon scoffed, and Stefan took that as an admission of guilt. "Right. Of course not. Naturally, you just…take her wedding rings." Stefan shrugged and, just like Claire before him, brushed past his brother without another word to be said.

Damon was left alone in Claire's room, oddly enough, with a sickened look on his face. His brother _always _took Claire's side on _everything. _It was like she was the sibling Stefan never had. It was something that got on Damon's nerves, seeing as Claire was _his _friend first. But he would be damned if he let those two see him sweat.

* * *

By the time Christopher finally came back to the communal house, the midnight sky looked just about ready to downpour on him. Luckily, since the storm had not started yet, he was safe. Christopher found Pearl in one of the many rooms downstairs, ironically with Frederick.

"Miss Pearl—" Christopher started, entering the room. But upon seeing Frederick, he just scoffed. Frederick remained unmoving, just whittling something in his hand. "Frederick. Wonderful. You seem to just be _everywhere _today."

Pearl turned to Christopher. "Don't worry about him, Christopher. Bethanne was punishment enough for his actions tonight."

Christopher nodded. "So you heard. I came straight here after Clarissa showed me her body. I wanted to make sure you knew and that _he _didn't try anything."

Frederick scoffed on the couch. "Clarissa. Lovely. So that means you two have _finally_ made your way back to each other. Maybe now you'll stop moaning."

"Maybe after tonight, you'll stop _complaining_," Christopher returned with a light shrug and a death glare. Pearl interrupted, not wanting to see the verbal fight turn into a physical one.

"Enough." Her eyes moved over Christopher, who just watched as Frederick kept whittling a piece of wood. "So you ran into Clarissa while you were away?"

Christopher's eyes finally met Pearl's. "I did. I'm sorry it wasn't the way you wanted, but it happened. Now that I've found her, I can't stay here anymore. I hope you understand."

"I do," Pearl said, but a sad smile rested on her lips. "I just wish I could've been the one to make it up to you. Helping Katherine with her revenge plans on Clarissa was one of the worst mistakes I could've possibly made."

The bronze-haired Fell nodded. "I appreciate your apology. I'll be out of here by morning." He didn't care about Pearl's mistake all that much, though. It seemed so long ago, and the agony of the tomb was enough to make him completely forget all about that horrid night he turned.

Pearl just nodded to him and then turned on her heel to leave with an extra glance towards Frederick. She left the two men alone, and that seemed to be Pearl's worst mistake.

The second Pearl was out of the room, two vampires came out from behind Christopher and snapped his neck silently. One vampire caught Christopher's body as it fell so that it didn't make a sound. Frederick finished whittling the stake in his hand and stood, sighing. He didn't even look towards Christopher's temporarily dead body.

"You heard Pearl before Christopher interrupted," the ruthless vampire muttered to his helpers. "No revenge. Patience. Self-control. She seems to have it all figured out, doesn't she?" He examined the stake in his hand as a lightning bolt struck behind him. Frederick's eyes drifted up towards Christopher's temporarily dead body, and a sick smile tugged at his lips. "Take him down to the cellar."

* * *

Damon nailed a wooden board to the broken window, temporarily fixing the issue until they could get a new window installed. The rain was pouring down heavily over the town, the clouds emptying all its unwanted rainwater.

"I say we go to Pearl's, bust down the door, and _annihilate _the idiot that attacked us last night," Damon suggested lightly with a dark edge to his tone.

"Yeah. And then what? We turn to the rest of that house of vampires and say, 'Oops. Sorry?'" Stefan snorted sarcastically. Damon shrugged, as if it weren't a bad idea.

"I can't believe you made a deal with her," an exasperated Elena said to Damon, giving him the equivalent of a death stare.

"Oh, it was more like a helpful exchange of information," Damon corrected like it was no big deal. "And it's not like I had a choice. She's…scary."

"Because we should all be afraid of the big, bad Pearl, right?" Claire spoke with her arms crossed over her chest. Her voice dripped with sarcasm, but Damon just nodded.

"Right. Claire, she's older than the three of us _combined. _Besides, she's gonna help me get Katherine back," Damon added. Somehow, it was a plus.

Claire just held up her hands and turned her head to Stefan, shaking it vigorously. "Nope. Nope. I can't. I can't do it. I'm done. I'm not even going to _respond_ to that." She began to pace, and Stefan tried to calm her down while Damon and Elena engaged in snarky conversation of their own.

"Oh of _course _she is," Elena snapped with an edge. "Damon gets what he wants, as usual. No matter who he hurts in the process."

"Okay, _Claire 2.0," _Damon snorted. "You don't have to be snarky about it."

Elena straightened angrily. "I woke up this morning to learn that all of the vampires have been released from the tomb! I've _earned _snarky."

Damon sighed, exasperated, and he sat down on his favorite armchair. "How long are you going to _blame_ me for turning your birth mother into a vampire?"

"I'm not blaming you, Damon," Elena sauntered forward with her arms crossed over her chest. "I've accepted the fact that you're a self-serving psychopath with no redeeming qualities."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Ouch. Like I haven't heard that one before."

Stefan stepped forward with an annoyed Claire by his side. "Okay! Okay. This isn't being very…_productive. _We're gonna figure out a way to deal with Pearl and the vampires. Yeah?" The younger Salvatore questioned his brother, trying to put him back on track.

"Mmhmm," Damon agreed and just got up from his chair, exiting the study. Claire stared after him with disbelieving eyes.

"Where the…where in the hell is he going _now_…?" Claire sighed tiredly. Meanwhile, Elena groaned.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, frustrated. "He just makes me so _cranky_!"

Stefan brought his girlfriend closer to him, pulling Elena's head into his chest. "I know. He makes everybody cranky."

"He makes everybody _pissed _off. Cranky's putting it lightly," Claire murmured and sat down in the chair that Damon vacated with a bounce.

"So what are we going to do?" Elena mumbled into Stefan's shoulder. Stefan held her close, trying to console her.

"Claire, Damon, and I will handle everything. I promise," Stefan assured her. Claire nodded to the human reassuringly, backing Stefan's claim up. Elena pulled away from Stefan, worried.

"Well, what about me?" she demanded. Stefan brushed a hair out of her eyes. "I can't just sit here and do nothing."

"No, that's exactly what you're gonna do because that's what's gonna keep you safe."

"Which means nothing if you're not safe, too."

"What do you mean? I'm perfectly safe." Stefan retorted, his eyes flickering over to Claire, who was observing Elena and Stefan. "I have Damon, the self-serving psychopath on my side and Claire, the badass vampire version of Buffy."

Claire pointed at Elena seriously. "It's true. I'm pretty badass. I could give Buffy a run for her money."

Elena buried her head in her hands. "It's the Damon part that's the most…_comforting_," she told them, her voice clipped. Claire rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry about him. He's going through a phase. It'll pass."

Elena looked up from her hands and, suddenly, a thought dawned on her. "Wait a second…if all the tomb vampires are out, then that means—"

"My husband is, too?" Claire filled in. Elena waited and watched as Claire nodded. "I know. I saw him earlier. I'm actually surprised he's not back yet…"

Stefan shrugged. "Maybe Pearl needed him to do something before he left. Or the rain slowed him down. Who knows?"

Claire took out a grave exhale. "You're right. I don't know, I'm just a little on edge. I swear, Damon Salvatore will drive me into an early retirement." As if vampires actually _did _retire. She wanted to laugh at the thought.

"Well, why don't you go back to the house with Elena? Take a breather," Stefan suggested, gesturing between the two of them. Elena looked at her boyfriend, raising an eyebrow.

"I thought you were going to come up with a plan to stop Pearl…"

Stefan frowned. "Yes, but the three of us know how _hard _it will be if Claire and Damon keep playing a nice little game of 'who can make the best comeback' all day."

Claire laughed. "That's right, Stefan. Blame it on your brother and your best friend when we _both _know you just want someone to look after Elena."

"Stefan, I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me." Elena told him reassuringly. Claire just sighed and stood up from her chair.

"Actually, it _would _be nice to get out of this house." A mischievous glint shone in Claire's eyes. "What do you say, Elena? We can paint each other's nails…braid each other's hair…maybe even have a pillow fight or two." The vampire smirked at the human, who just scoffed and smiled.

"Okay…sure," Elena agreed, nodding to Claire. "Why not? It should be fun."

Claire smiled and then turned to Stefan, who was enjoying the sight of the two women in his life getting along. The female vampire pointed at Stefan accusingly. "But this doesn't mean I'm out of the plan completely. Call me when you and Damon figure out what you want to do."

"Will do." Stefan nodded sternly. After Elena and Stefan said their proper goodbyes, Claire and Elena set out in the downpour outside to go back to the Gilbert house.

* * *

"If we're gonna watch a movie, we're gonna need popcorn," Claire complained as Elena hunted through the discs in the cabinet under the television in the Gilbert's living room. Elena chuckled softly.

"Why?"

"You can't watch a movie without popcorn, Elena! It's a crime!" Elena shook her head, trying to find a good movie to watch. Claire sighed. "Look, I'll go make some. You _do _have popcorn right?"

The teenager glanced up at Claire with teasing eyes. "Yes, Claire. We're not _completely _isolated."

"Good," Claire taunted back, swinging her legs off the couch and pulling herself up to go to the kitchen. "So _I _will go make some. With extra butter, too. _God, _I love being a vampire. You can eat what you want, when you want it. No questions asked."

She jogged to the kitchen and hunted down the box of popcorn in Elena's pantry while the teenager in the living room had a question she wanted to ask so badly. Elena was hesitant, but eventually, she opened her mouth and said, "So…you actually _like _being a vampire?"

Claire finally found the box of Orville Redenbacher's and grabbed a packet of microwavable popcorn. Hearing Elena's question, she shrugged and sighed. "I don't think…_anyone _actually _likes_ being a vampire, Elena. It's hard. Over time, you begin to _long _for the days when you were human." The package ripped with a light touch from her, and Elena stared at Claire, watching as the blonde vampire put the pocket of popcorn into the microwave and set the timer. Claire turned around with a sigh. "I was forced into it. The way I see it, I have no other choice than to enjoy it. If I don't, the rest of eternity will be _super _depressing."

Elena was silent, but Claire could tell that she understood. "I…guess that makes sense." She paused, and Claire watched as the popcorn spun on the microwave's tray and the clock counted down the time until it was done. "It was Katherine who forced you turn, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

"And that's why you hate her so much?"

"Among other reasons."

"Like…?"

"Elena," Claire warned, spinning around to face the teenager. "Katherine Pierce is someone I _really _don't want to think about right now. Which is odd, since I'm spending the day with her creepy look-alike, but the fact of the matter is, I actually _like _you. I sincerely don't want to talk about _her._"

"Okay." Elena forced herself up from the floor, and behind Claire, the microwave counted down its last seconds. "But…what I don't understand is _why _she'd do it. Why would she turn you if she hated you as much as you hated her?"

Claire threw her hands up. "In her mind, it was some sick, twisted way to get revenge on me. I don't know, I'm not Katherine." The microwave beeped behind Claire, and just as it did, Elena's phone rang. Claire listened to the sound of Elena ignoring the phone call and sighing irately, and just like that, Claire knew who it was. "Was that Damon?"

"Yeah." Claire jumped at the hotness of the inflated popcorn bag, and she dropped it on the counter so that it could cool before she opened it. Elena shouted out a movie title and Claire agreed quickly. After the bag of popcorn cooled down, Claire opened it, transferred the food to a bowl, and set it down in the living room. She felt around for her own phone, but the vampire soon realized that she'd left it in her jacket. Without telling Elena, she walked away from the living room and to the front door, where her leather jacket was hanging on the coat rack. Reaching inside her jacket, she found her phone just as it stopped buzzing. On the screen, it said that Damon Salvatore had called her ten times within the last hour.

"What the hell—?" Before Claire could say anything, a knock sounded right beside her, and she worriedly opened the door. Damon stepped inside without an invitation, brushing right past her.

"You're ignoring me," Damon accused her as he walked into the foyer of Elena's house. Claire shut the door and held up her phone.

"The ten missed calls? I left my phone in my jacket, Damon. Not that I would've answered them if I had known, anyway." Damon frowned at her, but she just crossed her arms. "Now what could you possibly want?"

"Damon?" Elena asked as she walked from the living room to the connecting room to see Damon in her house. He turned around at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Is Stefan here?" the dark-haired vampire questioned.

"No." Elena crossed her arms, too. "Why? Something wrong?"

"He went out to the woods and didn't come back. I can't get him on his phone. I figured he was here with you two," Damon replied. By this time, Claire had already dialed Stefan's number and pressed it to her ear.

With a shake of her head, Claire disconnected the phone call and announced, "It went straight to voicemail. What the hell is so important that he turned off his phone?"

Damon's eyes went wide, and he soon realized that it wasn't on purpose. His brother wouldn't turn off the phone; someone would have to do it for him or it would've died. Even if it did, Stefan was still nowhere to be found. He came to the conclusion quick, the already darkened day darkening by the second.

His eyes flickered up to Claire, who was waiting for Damon's conclusion. "You're not going to like what I'm thinking."

* * *

"Pearl!" Damon shouted as he and Claire stood on the porch of the communal house Pearl had set up for the tomb vampires. Though Christopher never really told Claire where it was, Damon had learnt the location from Pearl when she visited the Salvatore household. "Open this door! I swear to _God _I will bust through and rip your head off."

Claire banged on the door some more, but Damon grabbed her hands and thrust them back to her sides. She let out a frustrated exhale at Damon's gesture, but it paid off. The door cracked, and a vampire inside peered at them.

"Pearl's not home," the vampire said darkly. Damon and Claire stepped back, and the vampire stepped out into the light, revealing his face. It was Frederick. He hummed to himself as he looked over the grey sky. "Mm. Beautiful weather. Not a ray of sun in the sky."

A thunder sounded, but Damon and Claire weren't messing around with Frederick. "You have him! We _know _you have him. Where is he?"

Frederick gave her a sickening smile. "I'm sorry, Clarissa. You're going to have to be more specific."

"Stefan, you _dumbass_!"

"Stefan?" Frederick repeated, raising his eyebrows. "Funny. Because I thought you were here for…well, you do know who I'm talking about, right?"

Claire took a moment, trying to make sense of Frederick's cryptic words, but then she understood. Rage bubbled up inside her. "No! You did _not _take him, you didn't—"

Damon restrained Claire, holding her back so that she didn't kill herself in the process of trying to confront Frederick. "Claire, _stop,_" Damon pleaded, and the blonde vampire just jerked herself out of Damon's grasp and calmed down. Damon turned back to Frederick, disgusted. "Where's Stefan?"

Frederick and Damon stared at each other as the rain poured around the outside of the house. Frederick moved the door back, revealing the inside hallway of the house. He spoke one word: "Billy."

Inside, two vampires stepped out to reveal a sickeningly weak Stefan, doubled over with red rings around his eyes. All earlier thoughts of Damon trying to keep Claire from getting herself killed slipped away from Damon as he shouted three words and lunged for Frederick. "You are _dead_!"

"Whoa…I'm sorry." Frederick stepped back, and Damon was prevented from entering the house by the invisible seal around the threshold. "You haven't been invited in. Miss Gibbons?"

"Damon," Claire said softly, pulling Damon back from the threshold as well. He listened to her, stepping back, as the human Frederick called out to stepped out from behind the vengeful vampire.

"Yes, Frederick, honey?" She was a dazed, middle-aged woman with a bleeding bite mark on her neck. Frederick turned to her, his eyes locking on the woman.

"Never let this bad people in." It was all he needed to say to keep them out of the house, and with the compulsion, Miss Gibbons turned to Claire and Damon and nodded.

"I'll never let them in," she repeated in a monotone voice. A smile appeared on her face and she left without a single word. Frederick turned back to Damon and Claire, his eyes now cold and heartless.

"145 years left starving in a tomb, thanks to Katherine's _infatuation _with you and your brother," the resentful vampire snarled. Damon swallowed. "First few weeks, every single _nerve _in your body screams with fire. The kind of pain that can drive a person mad. Well…I thought your brother might've wanted to get a taste of that before I killed him."

Frederick's eyes moved to Claire, who shifted under his gaze. "As for your Christopher…he was just getting on my last nerve. I'll be sure to tell him you stopped by before I kill him." The merciless vampire just stepped to the side and said the other vampire's name again, and with the name used as a command, Billy stabbed Stefan in the side with a stake, causing Stefan to groan and drop. Frederick locked eyes with Claire and Damon.

"You two have a nice day."

The door was slammed in their face, and Damon and Claire were left out in the rain. "Come on," Damon grumbled and pulled her off of the porch out into the rain. He tried to make her run with him to prevent them from getting soaking wet before they went back to the car. Ultimately, they failed when Claire stopped running and just let the morning water soak into her. "Claire!" Damon shouted, feeling that her hand had slipped from his grasp.

"How could I have let this happen?" she shouted back at him over the rain, her hair completely drenched with water. Damon stared at her, the water dripping on his skin. "They have Christopher, Damon! If I had just gone with him or stopped him from leaving, they wouldn't—"

"Hey," Damon rushed up to her and gripped her arms hard. Claire turned her head from him, feeling sick. The rain was pouring on her, yet she didn't even care that it was soaking her immensely. "Stop it. Stop it! We'll get them back. Both of them."

"You don't know that!" Claire snapped, moving her eyes to lock with Damon's. "They could be killing Christopher _right _now! Stefan's the one they want to toy with, not Christopher! There's no guarantee that he'll even be _alive _when we save Stefan. Let alone if Stefan will be okay—"

"Listen to me. Claire! Listen to me," Damon growled, stepping closer again and moving his hands so they cupped her cheeks that were dripping wet from the rain. He could clearly see the anger built up in her eyes, and he remembered what a bad temper she had. But if she tried anything, she would die, and he knew that. "We'll figure it out, okay? Together. But we need to get back to Elena now and figure out this whole mess. Do you understand me?"

The blonde nodded, finding some kind of calmness in Damon's eyes. As much as she resented him, it wasn't the time to go picking a fight. So when Damon pulled her with him again to run to the car, Claire didn't object. They finally climbed into Damon's car, dripping wet but finally somewhere with a roof. Elena jumped down their throats the second they came into the car from the backseat.

"What happened? Where is he?" Elena pressured.

"They have him. And Christopher, apparently," Damon told the human, sighing. "Claire and I can't get in."

"Why not?"

"We're vampires, Elena," Claire told her softly. "We need to be invited in. The woman who owns the house is compelled not to."

Elena shook her head. "You don't have to get in. I can."

Damon stared the car and, if she'd suggested that on another day, he might've laughed. Instead, he began to leave the property in the pouring rain. "Don't be ridiculous, Elena. You're not going to go inside that house."

"But if you two can't get in—"

"Elena!" Claire snapped, turning around at her. Elena jumped at Claire's threatening voice, but the blonde just sighed, and the apology was written all over her face. "That house is full of murderous vampires. You're not going inside."

Elena took a moment to recover from Claire's abrasiveness, but eventually, she continued with her interrogation. "Why are they doing this? What do they want with Stefan? Or…or with Christopher, even? I don't…I don't _understand_."

"They want revenge," Damon said, trying to drive somewhat carefully in the rain. "At least, that's why they took Stefan. Apparently, Christopher just made an enemy in Frederick."

"He should've never gone back to that house," Claire muttered. Damon looked over at her.

"Claire," he said softly, and she looked over at him. He nodded to her. "We'll save him. He'll be fine."

Claire stared at Damon, really seeing his sincerity clearly in the clear, rainless air of the inside of Damon's car. Meanwhile, Elena was sitting in the backseat, thinking of plans to save Stefan. Suddenly, she gasped. "I know how we can get in."

"How?" Claire urged her, looking back at the teenager. Elena took out a shaky breath and glanced at Damon to get him to change his destination.

"The school. Go to the high school."

* * *

Frederick walked into the cellar where his two vampire hostages were being held by the aid of his two vampire minions. The rules had changed, and everything was clearer to Frederick after Damon and Clarissa's attempted invasion. While Stefan Salvatore, the one Frederick _really _wanted to torture, was being hung up and bound by vervain-soaked ropes, Christopher was staked down in a chair just a few feet away from Stefan, forced to watch.

"Your wife stopped by," Frederick announced to Christopher as he admired his minions' handiwork on Stefan. "With Damon Salvatore, no less. Weren't they supposed to be the 'It' couple of the 1800s or something like that?"

Christopher just laughed bitterly, almost delirious. He had been staked and re-staked over and over again for the past twelve hours by Frederick just for kicks. Christopher was starting to realize that it was just plain pathetic. "You're really something else, Frederick, you realize that? Staking me down…tying Stefan up…don't you get tired of trying to get revenge? You failed so _miserably_ at the Salvatore house already. Doesn't it wear you out?"

Frederick stared at Christopher blankly, and then he moved his gaze to Billy. The other vampire just moved forward towards Christopher and ripped out the stake in Christopher's leg sharply, earning the vampire to groan involuntarily. After a twist into Christopher's stomach leaving the Fell bleeding, Billy returned the stake back into Christopher's leg to violently imply for him to stop talking. With teeth gritted, Christopher had no other choice but to listen. Meanwhile, Frederick moved to Stefan and began his torture.

"Vervain on the ropes." Using a piece of unsoaked rope, Frederick tugged down on the rope holding Stefan up so that the youngest Salvatore's feet lifted off the floor. Frederick growled, "That's gotta sting," in Stefan's ear over the green-eyed vampire's grunts. Frederick released Stefan so that he was able to stand flat on the ground. "Speaking of…"

He walked around Stefan's half-naked body and grabbed Stefan's hand, tilting it back. Having no choice, Stefan was forced to keep his eye open and live through the pain as Frederick used an eyedropper to dispense liquid vervain into his eye. Another scream escaped Stefan's mouth at the pain of the vervain in his eye, the tissue creating a smoke. It could've gotten worse, but someone interrupted.

"This isn't right!"

Frederick turned to see Harper as he stopped the vengeful vampire from continuing with his act of morality. Frederick stepped forward.

"He _killed _Bethanne. One of us, Harper. And don't you think for a second he wouldn't kill you if he had the chance."

Harper looked to see Christopher sitting in a chair across from Stefan, and the moral vampire gestured at him. "What are you doing to Christopher? He was supposed to be gone!"

"Christopher is a traitor. He was never one of us. All he cares about is that _Clarissa King _girl. It sickens me," Frederick brushed it off and turned. Harper shook his head, but Frederick continued. "Pearl says we're not here for revenge, right? I say that's _exactly what _we're here for. Starting with this."

The cruel vampire walked over to Stefan and dragged a knife across Stefan's chest in a diagonal motion, coaxing a groan from Stefan's mouth. Frederick gripped Stefan's throat and continued harshly.

"And then his brother. And then the King girl. And anyone else who gets in our way."

Harper lunged forward, trying to take away the knife Frederick used on Stefan. "This isn't right!"

Frederick just turned around and gripped Harper by the throat now, his voice raised high. "You're gonna wanna let go of me!" he snapped roughly. Despite the impairment Harper had with Frederick's hand around his throat, Harper managed to speak.

"Miss Pearl will be home soon," the ethical vampire warned.

"_Miss Pearl _is no longer in charge," Frederick whispered and then turned to his henchmen. "Tie him up! Stake him down like Christopher."

And though Harper tried to fight the two goons on him, he couldn't. Once he was gone, Frederick turned to Stefan, ready to torture the youngest Salvatore some more.

* * *

After much-needed convincing, Alaric Saltzman had given into the demands of Elena, Damon, and Claire. Damon had enticed him with the idea of finding his vampire wife, but Claire, Elena, and Damon all knew that what Damon was spinning was a lie. Elena kept her mouth shut and Claire was too stressed about getting her own husband back that she didn't say anything. For the occasion, Alaric laid his arsenal of vampire hunting weapons out on his desk for them all to see in the one lamp light he had on his desk.

"Teacher by day. Vampire hunter by night," Damon quipped, almost sourly impressed.

"I have you to thank for that," Alaric retorted. Beside Damon, Claire let out a small scoff as she looked over the array of weaponry.

"Wow. Van Helsing really _was _the right term to describe you," she mumbled to herself as she looked over the weapons Alaric had at his mercy. The crossbow he made was only the beginning of it—there were darts, wooden stakes, and even wooden bullets.

"What are these?" Elena asked, running her fingers over a dart. With his arms crossed, Alaric responded professionally.

"Those are tranquilizer darts filled with vervain."

"Just get us in," Damon told Alaric abruptly. "Claire and I will get Stefan and Christopher out."

"That's your plan?" Elena asked, her voice dull. She swept her eyes around to all the adults in the room. "You two are just going to take all the vampires on by yourselves?"

"Well, we'll be a little stealthier than that, hopefully."

Claire sighed. "Besides, Elena. We're going to avoid all the vampires we can to get Stefan and Christopher out. We're not going in there to pick a fight."

"Speak for yourself, sugar," Damon murmured, low enough for only Claire to hear. She looked back at Damon and shot him a glare, but her attention was turned back to Elena when Alaric stopped her from doing something.

"Whoa. What are you doing?" Alaric questioned the human as she grabbed a tranquilizer dart. Elena looked up at him as if she hadn't done anything wrong.

"I'm going with you," the teenager said simply.

"No…no, no, no, no," Damon hurried out, shaking his head. "No way."

"You need me. I'll get in, you could distract them, and then I'll get Stefan," the girl suggested.

Claire turned to Elena. "Elena, this isn't an easy thing, okay? We're dealing with _ravenous _vampires here. You're not going in there. You'll get killed."

"I'm going," Elena returned. Damon just sighed and turned to Alaric.

"So when you get me and Claire inside, get out as quickly as you can." Alaric looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "We know how to sneak around where they can't hear us. You'll…basically just be in the way."

"Damon!" Elena said through her teeth, trying to turn the attention back to her. "Now is not the time to be the lone ranger."

Damon groaned as Claire opened her mouth to protest, but he eventually compromised. It wasn't much of an agreement, though, because he just belittled Elena. "Fine! Elena, you can drive the getaway car. Hmm? You're not going in that house." Damon's voice went from joking to serious all in one instant.

"You can't stop me," Elena returned angrily, rushing her eyes to anyone who would listen. "It's _Stefan _we're talking about here. You don't understand!"

"What the hell are you not comprehending, Elena?" Claire barked angrily, her patience wearing thin. Elena stood her ground, used to Claire's sudden snaps by now. "You. Are. Not. Going. In. There. You can bet your _ass _I understand why you _want _to go, but now is _not _the time to be a hero." She snapped her fingers, causing Elena to flinch. "_That's _how fast it'll take to snap your neck in half, you get it? Damon and I need to get in and _get out _before anyone makes us. If we fail, this will be something that _none _of us get the luxury of walking away from."

Elena lowered her eyes as Claire chastised her, and Claire immediately felt guilty about it, but she didn't say anything. The vampire was just so on edge, and Elena's pestering wasn't helping the situation. At any moment, Frederick could drive a stake through Christopher's heart and he'd be done for. He could do the same to her best friend, and it was getting to Claire's darkest emotions.

"Elena," Claire said softly, reaching out to touch the teenager's arm. Elena looked up, her eyes watering. "Believe me right now, I know _exactly _how you feel. But trust me on this. Please. I'll get him back for you."

Silence washed over the four in the room, until the vampire-hunting teacher broke said silence. "If we're gonna go, let's go."

* * *

"Being the bad guy sucks," Claire murmured to Damon as he and Claire waited for Alaric to get inside of the communal house. Guilt was riding her for harping on Elena so harshly, but she knew that she had no choice. If Elena went inside that house, she would get killed. "I don't know how you do it all the time."

"It's a life choice," Damon whispered to her over the rain. The rain washed their voices out so that the vampires inside wouldn't hear. They were standing on the back porch where they were sure Miss Gibbons was on the other side of the door. They were waiting for Alaric to infiltrate the house and get the human to invite Damon and Claire inside. "You'll deal with it."

"I don't want to deal with it," Claire told him softly. "I may be a bitch sometimes, but that's really only to you."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Lucky me."

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Alaric was shoving Miss Gibbons towards the open threshold. "I'm really sorry, but you're gonna need to invite a couple friends of mine inside."

Miss Gibbons stumbled in the doorway. "Oh, I'm sorry. They're not allowed in the house."

Alaric turned the dazed woman to him. "Yeah, I know, but you're gonna have to make an exception."

Damon spoke up over Alaric. "Get her out of the house. Now!" Alaric pushed Miss Gibbons onto the porch and Claire held her while Damon looked into her eyes using his compulsion heavily. "Miss Gibbons, now tell me the truth. Are you married?"

"No."

"Parents, children, anyone else who lives on this property?"

"No," Miss Gibbons repeated innocently. "It's just me."

"No? Good." Damon's hands went around her neck and snapped it in a quick flash, leaving Claire to catch the dead owner in her arms. She just let Miss Gibbons fall to the ground, and she and Damon were then welcome to step inside. As Damon crossed the threshold, Alaric stopped Damon forcefully.

"You were supposed to compel her!" the History teacher snapped angrily, not liking Damon's method of torture.

Damon's voice was a whisper. "It doesn't _work _that—"

"She's human!" Alaric shoved Damon.

"And I'm not! So I don't care," Damon spat. Claire stepped between them, breaking the two apart.

"We do not have _time _for this," she snarled and turned quickly to Alaric, sandwiching herself between the two men. "Get _out _of here. And get rid of the body." She shoved Alaric outside and Damon shut the door swiftly and quietly so that no vampire heard them. Hopefully, Alaric's episode didn't ruin things for them. Damon grabbed Claire's arm and pulled her with him to another direction to hide until another vampire came to find them and they could dwindle down their list of enemies. It wasn't long before Billy, Frederick's right hand man, went missing, and Frederick sent another vampire to find him. Damon and Claire had dragged Billy's body into the closet and were just waiting for the other vampire to find them.

Sure enough, they were right on point. The first vampire had been taken down by Damon, who staked the vampire quickly and as quietly as he could. After he set the vampire's body on the floor, he beckoned Claire with him. Before she went, she opened the fridge in the kitchen and, sure enough, there was a whole supply of blood stored in bottles. She grabbed one and then followed Damon out into the rest of the house to find Stefan and Christopher as quickly as possible.

Eventually, they were able to sneak past the vampires in the main room and get down to the basement, where they assumed the rogue vampires were hiding Stefan and Christopher. Stealthily, Claire kept a lookout on Damon's back and he moved them forward, down the stairs and to the cellar.

Claire stopped them, gripping Damon's hand hard. She whispered, her voice low enough for only Damon to hear her. "You smell that?" she asked. Damon took a whiff out of the air as they came down the stairs, and he nearly growled.

"Elena."

All of a sudden, another vampire appeared in the doorway that they were right beside. He hadn't made them, but he was coming to the quick conclusion. Damon's grip tightened on the tranquilizer dart in his hand, and with a flash, he stabbed it into the vampire's neck, bringing said vampire down. Damon and Claire walked out from the passageway to the cellar and faced Elena, who was standing behind a corner, breathing hard.

Damon's eyes were cold and angry. "Are you _insane_?" he snapped at the human.

Elena just panted, grateful that Claire and Damon had gotten to them before anything bad could've happened. She would've been disappointed, but they couldn't do anything about her situation now. She had already risked her life to get inside; they couldn't kick her out or yell or kick or scream.

She was in this now, whether they liked it or not.

While Claire, Damon, and Elena were trying to rescue Stefan and Christopher, the two tied-up vampires remained in the cellar room with Harper, who was sitting in a chair beside Christopher in the same position. Stefan seemed to be the only one they wanted to torture, but not the only one they wanted to kill. Stefan struggled against his ropes, but that only made it worse.

Eventually, Stefan whispered, "Thank you," to Harper, who looked up at him. "For trying to help me," the weak vampire clarified.

"They just needed somebody to blame. Someone to punish," Harper struggled. Suddenly, Elena broke through the door, sighing in relief when she saw Stefan.

"E-Elena?" Stefan choked out in disbelief. His girlfriend rushed up to him, and Stefan immediately realized the danger she was in. "You shouldn't be here…"

Damon and Claire emerged through the broken-down door as well, and while Damon went to Stefan, Claire rushed over to Christopher, who sighed in relief at her presence.

"Clarissa…" Christopher breathed. Her hands hesitated over the stakes in Christopher's legs, fearing to pull them out because she knew it would hurt.

"Thank _God_ you're not dead." Claire sighed in relief, but tilted her head suggestively when her eyes finally reached the wooden stakes holding her husband down. "But that doesn't look too comfortable."

Christopher laughed, despite the pain. "It's _really _not." She smiled up at him sadly, and Damon stared at the two and the stranger beside Christopher.

"She was supposed to stay in the car," Damon grumbled to Stefan before walking around Christopher and Claire to Harper. He flipped a stake in his hand, but Christopher stopped Damon just as Claire was about to rip out a stake.

"No! Damon, stop," Christopher groaned, making Damon pause. Christopher swallowed, shaking his head. "He's not a threat. He defended Stefan, that's why he's in here with us. Don't kill him."

Damon shrugged. "Whatever. Let's get you down, Stefan."

But as Damon reached out to get the ropes, Stefan choked out, "There's vervain on the ropes."

The blue-eyed vampire immediately turned on his heel. "Elena, pull that." Elena instantly went to the ropes while Claire ripped out a stake from Christopher's leg, causing him to grind his teeth and groan. She didn't apologize, but merely took in a deep breath to take out the other one, once again making Christopher groan out as softly as he could.

Claire eyed the ropes behind Christopher, and her husband shook his head. "Don't. They're soaked, too."

Claire looked up at him and refused. "No. I've got this."

She braced herself as she heard Elena pull Stefan down from his ropes and Stefan stumbled into the wall beside Claire. Claire finally put her hands on the vervain ropes and bit down on her lip so hard that it bled. The vervain was burning into her skin, making her cry out, but she didn't care. She had them undone quickly, even though her fingertips turned raw. The ropes were on the floor, and Christopher was free and somewhat weak.

"All right," Damon spoke to the group he was leading. "Let's go. Clothes on, brother."

"Wait!" Stefan called out. Claire put Christopher's arm around her and held him up with no problem, considering her strength. As she made headway for the door, Damon turned around at the demand of his younger brother.

"What? Guys, come on! We have to get _out _of here."

Stefan bent down and pulled the stake out of Harper's leg with his bound hand, causing the two of them to groan. The younger Salvatore just made Elena take the other one out while Damon pushed for them to leave. Christopher was gaining strength by the second with the bottle of blood that Claire managed to steal from the fridge earlier. He clutched the bottle to his lips, drinking enough so that his strength returned.

"Can you get him in the car?" Damon asked Elena, specifically, as they exited the cellar room.

"Yeah. What about you?" Elena responded.

"You rescue, I'll distract. Christopher and Claire, you go with them." At this, Claire snapped her head up.

"Damon, you can't take on all those vampires by yourself. We'll help." Damon watched her as Claire nodded assuringly, and the vampire beside her nodded, too, all of his strength slowly returning to his body from the blood. Christopher tossed the empty blood bottle somewhere on the floor, and Damon didn't dispute their help.

"All right. Upstairs. Let's do this."

Once upstairs, Damon started his distraction plan by killing a vampire just feet away from Frederick. He flashed away to Claire and Christopher, who were waiting in the wings for the fight to really start. Frederick barked out commands to his vampire minions, and they spread out amongst the house, leaving him alone. It was the perfect time, Damon recognized, to really distract him, so he went for it while the other two vampires on the offensive went after others in the household.

The vampire fight was a blur, and it had many changes of power. It ended up that Damon beat the living daylights out of Frederick, but was blocked when two of his minions showed up and started kicking Damon around. Frederick got away, spooked and knowingly setting off to find Stefan to kill him quickly this time, and while Damon was getting his ass kicked, a certain blonde vampire came to the rescue. Claire took one of the vampires off of Damon and started fighting him while Damon took the one nearest to him. It was a bloodbath all right, but one that they were thankfully winning.

After killing the one vampire with the help of Christopher, who restrained said vampire so Claire could stake him, they were about to help Damon with the other when another vampire flashed up to Damon, striking to kill. Instead, that vampire was shot in the back by a certain vampire-hunting History teacher who lurked in the shadows.

"I'm going after Frederick," Damon announced, flashing away before Alaric, Claire, or Christopher could say anything to stop him.

"We'll search the house for more vampires," Claire breathed out, running a hand through her pale blonde hair. Christopher followed her, and they took off to find any remaining tomb vamps in the house that they could exterminate. They found one, but it was easily killed. Eventually, they returned to the main foyer, where Alaric was clutching his neck and pulling away a hand lightly sprinkled in blood.

"What happened to you?" Claire asked, her eyes moving over Alaric's hand. The teacher sighed.

"Bastard bit me."

"Frederick's gone," Damon declared, panting, as he came out of the hallway he saw Frederick disappear into, empty-handed. Claire, Christopher, and Alaric all turned to the dark-haired vampire who was in an understandable hurry to kill Frederick before anyone else got hurt.

"Let's get out of here," Alaric suggested. Damon turned around towards the door, groaning.

"Ah, I'm gonna _kill _him!" Damon shouted angrily as he swung open the door and stepped outside onto the porch. Claire, Christopher, and Alaric followed him, but were soon greeted by a swarm of tomb vampires just on the lawn, setting after them. The four stopped on the porch in disbelief. There were too many vampires. Not enough to be taken down by only three vampires and a vampire-hunting human.

"Hey, Van Helsing?" Claire sung, pursing her lips. "Those nifty vervain darts? How many do you have left, exactly?"

"One."

Damon shook his head. "Not gonna be enough."

He backed into the house, as did the rest of them, hoping to prolong the inevitable. Damon shut the door with a bang and they backed away from it, ready to come at whatever vampires stepped through the threshold.

"So what you said to get me to do this. About my wife? It was a lie, wasn't it?" Alaric asked Damon, who was slowly realizing that the house was surrounded. He found no reason to lie again.

"Yep."

Just as they thought the vampires would storm inside, there was a loud thudding sound, and the voice of an angry Pearl sounded.

"Stop! What's going on here?" Pearl asked, her voice muffled behind the door. The four defenders inside watched and waited as the door slowly creaked open, and Pearl and her daughter stepped through the threshold to see their house full of dead tomb vamps. "What did you do?" Pearl accused.

"Me?" Damon snapped angrily. "Your merry little band of vampires spent the day torturing my _brother _and your charity case."

Pearl's eyes flickered to Christopher, whose wounds were all healed on his wrists and legs. But she could clearly see his pants were stained with blood, validating Damon's story. Pearl's voice dropped to a regretful whisper.

"Trust me. The parties responsible for this will be dealt with."

"No. Our little arrangement doesn't work unless you learn to _control _them." Damon pointed a stake at her accusingly.

"This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Well, it did!" Damon brushed past the old vampire and then spun around, pointing a finger at her now. "_If _I had a good side…_not _a way to get on it."

Damon opened the door with a creak, and he stepped outside, unharmed by Pearl. Alaric followed, and Claire was next. Pearl stopped Christopher from leaving, though, which made Claire wait for her husband while Pearl spoke softly.

"I'm _so _sorry, Christopher. I had no idea."

"I know." Christopher nodded, giving Pearl a sad smile. "Goodbye, Miss Pearl."

He brushed past Pearl, grabbing Claire's hand and pulling him out with her as well, shutting the door. The sound of grasshoppers filled the air, and Claire and Christopher followed after Damon and Alaric towards the car.

"Wait," Christopher pulled Claire to a stop just in front of the car, where Elena was helping Stefan get inside. Claire came a stop at Christopher's demand, her eyes searching his. "Claire? Is that what you go by now?"

Claire nodded. "Yes, it is. Does it matter?"

"No, I just…I just think I need a moment to stop and take a breath." Christopher inhaled deeply, and Claire just waited for him to start to make sense of everything. She knew what it was like to be a newborn—and though Christopher had been a vampire for over a hundred and fifty years, he was still technically new. "Thank you," he said eventually. "For saving me."

"You're my husband." Claire scoffed, not wanting to hear the gracious words from him. "I would do…_anything _for you. You know that."

"I'm still thankful." A small smile tugged on the side of Christopher's lips as he rubbed circles into the back of her hand. She nodded at him in understanding, and a silence passed over them. Claire opened her mouth to say something, but Christopher moved forward and kissed her without any warning at all. It took her pleasantly by surprise, but it _was _a surprise. Sure, she was kissing her husband, but it had been a hundred and fifty years since she had been with him. During that time, she'd committed so many acts of adultery any normal human would be sickened by it. Nevertheless, she kissed back, sighing into the kiss. Christopher pulled away after a while, his other hand stroking the side of her face.

He stepped back, their hands still intertwined, and cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I know, we have a lot to work on, being apart for so long. But I just—"

"Don't…don't _apologize_." Claire shook her head and ripped her hand from Christopher, who raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" he asked her, but she turned from him, running a hand through her hair. "Did I do something?"

"No," Claire scoffed, turning around to face him. "God no. Of course not. It's what _I _did, okay? I mean…over the course of a hundred and fifty years, I have been with…" Claire let out a deep, deep sigh. "...s_o _many guys. I mean…_so _many. And you've just—you've been _perfect._ _So_ perfect, and it makes me _sick _to even _think _about all of the things that I did over those years I thought you were dead."

Christopher was silent, his eyes sweeping across the dark forest. He licked his lips, and Claire watched him with hurt eyes, trying to decipher his reaction. Eventually, Christopher sighed. "I can't…I can't _blame _you for those things, Clarissa. You did think I was dead. Even if you didn't, it was _your _choice. It doesn't affect how I feel…_at all_."

Claire fell silent, but a small, sad smile touched at her lips. "You always used to do that."

"Do what?"

"Think the best of me," Claire answered, sighing heavily. She stepped forward and grabbed his hand again, weaving their fingers together. "I think you're the only one besides Stefan who's really ever done that."

"Well, I love you." Christopher shook his head, a smile at his lips. "Did you expect any less of me?"

"No." Claire's smile got wider, and she stepped forward and kissed him again, this time neither one of them being taken by surprise. After their light, intimate kiss, she pulled him into her arms and hugged him, and then she saw something.

Damon.

He was standing by the hood of his car, stopped in his steps, watching them. Claire's heart sank in her chest watching as Damon stared, but she didn't pick up on the jealousy that was overriding his face. Instead, she saw the one secret that she never told anyone. The one that would ruin her marriage and her friendship if it ever got out.

So when Claire and Christopher went down to the cars and Alaric offered to take them home since Damon's car was full, Claire decided to corner Damon and talk to him before anything else got out of hand.

"You know, those wedding rings still seem to be absent on your finger," Damon pointed out as she reached him. "Explanation?"

"They're in my pocket," Claire told him, rubbing her naked ring finger at the mention of it. "I'll put them on soon. We just have a lot of things to work through first."

"Didn't look that way," Damon noted with a shrug and a sigh. "By the way, you're welcome."

"I was coming over here to say thank you," Claire told him maturely, nodding once. Damon's eyes locked with hers, and she remained stable. "You did help save him today and you helped me keep control of myself. I appreciated that."

"Well don't get too used to it." Damon gave her a sour smile. "We're enemies, remember?"

Claire kept her eyes on him, but his eyes were hardened. She dropped her eyes eventually and stepped back from Damon's car. "Right. Enemies. I guess I forgot for a second there." Damon nodded to her and braced his hand by the car door, but Claire inhaled sharply to stop him. "Damon, I just…" He raised an eyebrow, prompting her, and after licking her lips, Claire eventually sighed. "Everything seemed to work out for the best, okay? With Christopher and the tomb, I mean. And I just wanted to say that I don't blame you anymore. What's done is done."

A smug smile climbed onto Damon's face. "Clarissa King taking vindicating me? Where's my recording device?"

Claire's mouth tugged down in a frown. "There's no need to be a dick about it."

"There's plenty need." Damon opened the door of his car and smiled at her. "See you at home, sugar."

She opened her mouth to say something, but Damon had already started the car and was leaving the premises. Claire looked up with a sigh, and she noted the significant clarity of the night sky that was clearing itself up from the storm earlier.

* * *

When Damon returned home from a drink at the Grill, where the History teacher had socked him in the jaw, Damon realized that Claire and Christopher had already called it a night. So, leaving him with no one else to celebrate his victory with, Damon went to go check on Stefan in his room. He walked in, hearing complete and utter silence, but then he saw it.

One empty blood bag.

Another empty blood bag.

And then Stefan, sitting in dim light, ravenously and broodingly sucking the life out of another blood bag, human blood stained all over his lips and chin. He wore an ashamed expression, and Damon realized quickly that his brother, his goodie-two-shoes brother, had taken one rough fall right off the wagon.

Again.


	10. Under Control

**Hello, everyone. Here's the next chapter for you all. Christopher's character has reviews across the board...I created his character, so I can't judge him. But here's a little heads up: he's not dying in the first season. You're all going to have to wait and see what I have in store for him, but do with that what you will. Trust me, I have a lot of twists and turns for this story that I'm really excited to get to. That's why I'm trying to get over Season 1 so I can start making my way towards the more interesting seasons. **

**Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Review at the end if you can, please. Hopefully this isn't the only story being updated today. I'm going to try my hardest to get a chapter of _Don't Trust Me _out by later tonight so look out for it! **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Under Control**

Claire stood over the fridge in the basement, pursing her lips. Her thoughts drifted back to the last time she'd fed, and she thought about how much blood was in the cooler then as opposed to how much was in there at that moment. As the wheels in her brain turned and she tried to make sense of the whole situation, she could hear the shuffling of feet coming to her.

"Claire?" Christopher said softly as he entered the small room in the basement where they kept the blood. Claire looked up to see her husband as he entered the room and cocked an eyebrow at her. "What are you doing?"

"I was getting something to eat," Claire responded, sighing as she leaned into the cooler and brought out a pocket of blood. Christopher nodded, but he waited for her to explain the reason she was weary. "But…there's something wrong. When did the blood supply become so low?"

Christopher shrugged. "Maybe Damon got hungry."

Claire looked up at him, frowning. "And he decided to raid the entire cooler? Damon doesn't _do _blood from bags if he's ravenously hungry. He prefers his from the vein."

"What about Stefan?"

"Stefan doesn't feed from humans—or even blood bags. He feeds off of animals."

Christopher was still confused. He rubbed his eyes and gestured towards the cooler. "Then the point of that thing is…?"

With a heavy sigh, the blonde female just shut the top of the cooler and tried to push the bad feeling out of her head. _Pick your battles, _Claire reminded herself. It was the number one rule of marriages nowadays. "You're right. I probably just miscalculated. You want to share this with me?"

Her husband nodded and smiled. "Sure. Come on." With a hand on the small of her back, he ushered her towards the exit of the small, secret room. When the two were upstairs, Claire grabbed two crystal glasses and took out the tube inside of the blood bag so she could pour the blood easily. "So do you do it, too?"

Claire looked up at Christopher, raising an eyebrow. "Do what?"

"Feed from the vein," Christopher clarified, sitting down on the couch. Claire turned back to the glasses and squeezed the last drops of blood out of the blood bag into the second cup she'd filled.

"Sometimes," the blonde admitted, grabbing both glasses. She walked over to Christopher with two cups in her hands and sat next to him, barely leaving any space between the two. "I try not to, though. Kind of seems inhumane if you ask me. But I've had my fair share of slip-ups."

Christopher took the glass from his wife and she pressed hers to her lips and drank. "I killed a man when I got out of the tomb," he confessed.

Claire nodded, but her expression remained unmoving. "I wouldn't blame you. You were starved for a century."

"I still feel bad." Her husband shrugged and drank a little out of the cup she gave him. He licked his lips, removing the stray blotches of blood. "Not enough to…I don't know, _cry _about it, but it still makes me feel guilty. I took a man's life."

Claire scoffed. "I've taken several." She leaned forward and set her glass of blood down on the coffee table. Her denim-covered knee was resting on Christopher's leg, and his warm hand was rubbing his thumb back and forth over the material. They were both dressed and ready for the day, but as married as they were, they hadn't gotten to…_that _part of their marriage just yet. Like she'd told Damon, they had a lot to work out. Sex wasn't number one on their priorities list. "Especially when I had my emotions off."

"Emotions off?"

"There's a switch that vampires can flip if an event traumatic enough calls for it," Claire explained. "It lets you feel nothing. Emotions, _gone. _But don't believe all the hype. It just prolongs the inevitable."

Christopher raised an eyebrow. "What made you flip the switch?"

Claire shrugged. "I don't even remember. I just wanted to try it, I guess. I didn't understand what was so good about it. All it does is remove your humanity."

"Stefan and Damon flipped it as well, once?" Christopher asked her, and Claire nodded.

"Mmhmm. If I didn't know any better, I'd think Damon still has his off." A small smile twitched at Claire's lips, but it was a joke. After helping her rescue Christopher from Frederick's house, she automatically knew that Damon had his emotions on. She still hated him, but she saw a glimpse of what Elena had seen. Salvation. "But Stefan…well, Stefan's a complicated story."

"It's not _complicated_," a new voice joined. Claire and Christopher turned their attention to Damon, who bounced into the room in a fresh pair of clothes, ready for the new day. "It's just long and boring and…well, boring again."

"Hey," Claire said to Damon to get his attention off the topic that she and her husband were discussing. "What's going on with Stefan? He hasn't gone back to school yet. Is everything okay?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Everything's just peachy." Claire scowled. "Seriously. He's fine. Just irritable, that's all. After all, he did spend a day getting brutally tortured by Pearl's little vampire projects."

Damon knew he shouldn't have kept the truth from Claire—really, how many lies could he keep piling on? But she was busy with Christopher, trying to rekindle any dull spark that they'd had before. So, Damon took the high road. He kept the fact that Stefan had fed off of Elena's blood that dark, depressing night and let her believe that he was just on edge. But Claire was smart—she would figure it out soon enough.

"I'm still worried about him," Claire admitted, grimacing at Damon. "Maybe we should push him to try and get back in the swing of things. If he doesn't, he'll go crazy thinking about what happened."

"I'll talk to him. Okay?" Damon promised, exasperated. Christopher took a sip of his blood, and seeing it, it made Claire thirsty. She reached forward to grab her glass, but Damon swooped down and took it before she could.

"Damon!" Claire shouted as Damon began to walk away with the blood glass.

"Thanks for the drink!" he called out over his shoulder and walked up the stairs. An irate Claire just shook her head and her husband laughed before extending his glass to her so she could have some of his.

But while Claire and Christopher remained downstairs, Damon went up to Stefan's room to find the younger Salvatore doing pull-ups on a wooden beam up high in his room, rock music blasting louder than it would be at a concert. Damon winced.

"Could you turn it up a little bit?" he shouted over the music, aggravated. "It's not annoying _yet._"

Stefan grunted from his athletic position. "Sorry."

Damon just turned around and lowered the music so that it wasn't blasting in his ear, but it was still loud enough to drown out his conversation with his brother. Stefan jumped down from the beam he was exercising on and turned around.

"When you goin' back to school?" Damon asked Stefan, doing as he said he would do for Claire. Stefan just dropped to his stomach and pulled himself into push-up position.

"Soon."

Damon groaned. "Oh, come on. Just _drink_ already." It was another reason he didn't want Claire in Stefan's business. She would be trying to get Stefan to go back on the bunny diet, and he wanted Stefan to drink human blood like a _real _vampire. Damon walked over to Stefan with Claire's blood glass in his hand, squatting right next to his brother with the intoxicating scent. "Come on. This self-detox is unnatural."

Stefan pushed himself down and rose from just above the floor. "Could you get that away from me, please?" He did another push-up before getting out of reach regarding the blood, knowing his brother wouldn't do it for him.

"How long did it take you to wean yourself off of it after you last _indulged_?" the evil brother prompted. Stefan had moved to a chair now and began to do push-ups at an elevated angle. Taking his brother's silence as an answer, Damon inhaled sharply. "That's not good."

"I'll be fine. It just takes a little bit of time."

"I don't get it. You know, you don't have to _kill _to survive. That's what blood banks are for. I haven't hunted a human in…gah—_way _too long."

Stefan scoffed. "Ah, I'm impressed," he said sarcastically.

Damon shrugged. "It was completely self-serving." He rose from his position on the floor and explained, "Claire and I are trying to get the town off the trail of vampires, which is _not _very easy considering there's an entire _tomb _of them running around."

"What are we planning on doing about that?" Stefan asked, rising from the floor and crossing his arms over his chest.

"_We're_ not going to be doing much of anything if _you_ don't have your strength," Damon retorted. Stefan just hung his head and ignored his brother's words. Damon was very aware of this complex, so he pushed, "There's nothing _wrong _with partaking in a _healthy _diet of human blood from a blood bank. You're not actually killing anyone."

"I have my reasons."

Damon was disbelieving in his brother's comment. "Well, what are those holier-than-thou reasons? You know, we've never actually _discussed _that! You know, I-I'd _love _to hear this story." He sat down on the chair in front of the brooding Stefan, setting the blood glass on the table beside the chair, waiting.

Stefan scoffed. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you? Just…watching me struggle?"

"Very much so," Damon agreed. "Actually, it's even _more _fun, lying to Claire. She thinks you're just traumatized by the tomb vampires, actually. I mean…she's been so busy with the love of her pathetic little life. I wouldn't want to take away any of that…_happiness, _now would I?" Stefan frowned hearing his own words against him. Damon just leaned forward and braced himself on his knees. "See, I'm just so curious. Why _haven't _you told her that you've fallen off the wagon again?"

"It's none of your business, Damon," Stefan muttered. "And it's none of hers, either. She doesn't need to know about me. I hate to break it to you, Damon, but I actually have this under complete control."

"You do?" Damon questioned sarcastically. Stefan nodded, and his brother just shrugged. "Oh. Well, then you should just carry on making the rest of us vampires look bad." He rose from his seat without taking Claire's blood glass from the table and gave a smile to his brother. "Have a great day, Stef."

It was intentional, of course. Damon had left the glass in Stefan's room and walked out, just waiting for his brother to realize that he _wasn't _under control. Inside his room, Stefan was staring at the blood glass, his gaze transfixed. One foot in front of the other, he stepped once, in a trance. As soon as Damon was sure he'd left his brother enough time with the blood glass, he jogged back into the room. Stefan took a step back and shied away.

"Oh! Hey, I almost forgot something. Oops." Damon grabbed his blood glass from the table and drank out of it. The room-temperature blood coated the inside of his mouth, and he swallowed, the thick ropes sliding down his throat and easing his hunger. He turned to his brother and walked out of the room, all while taunting Stefan with the moans of satisfaction that the blood gave him.

* * *

"I really hate these things," Claire complained as she twisted her stick-straight blonde hair around her finger. Damon watched her as the two trekked up the driveway to the Founder's Hall. After twirling her hair, she just brushed it behind her and let it fall down her back. "They're so oblivious it actually _hurts_ to be around them."

"You're the one who wanted to be the King representation," Damon reminded her as they walked. She looked over at him and frowned.

"That's because you came over and started that whole 'she's grieving' crap. I would rather be a part of some secret vampire-hating society than be branded as a whining, crybaby granddaughter." The female vampire scoffed.

Damon rolled his eyes. "No one could ever take you as the whining, crybaby type, Claire. Trust me."

They finally reached the entrance to the Founder's Hall, and the two were greeted by the officer that stood outside to make sure unwanted guests stayed out. Claire had been going with Damon to these regular Founder's Council meetings to keep up appearances and earn trust. However, it seemed that old Jack King had earned enough of their trust. Although old, drunk, and bitter, the one thing he hated more than people who took his nursing bottle of scotch away from him were vampires.

How ironic.

"The coroner's office has officially ruled Vicki Donovan's death a drug overdose," Sheriff Forbes told the rest of the Council as the deputy they greeted at the door escorted in Damon and Claire inside to join the meeting. "Her family has been notified. The truth will stay in this room, and we can put this behind us."

"Thank you, Sheriff," Richard Lockwood said to Liz as he stepped forward and Liz stepped into the crowd. She joined Claire and Damon in the back, giving them both a small, appreciative smile. Claire tried her best to like Sheriff Forbes, but just because she wasn't going to kill the Sheriff to get revenge for Lexi didn't mean she had to buddy-buddy with her like Damon did. She only extended common courtesy. "And…onto a more pressing issue. John Gilbert has asked to say a few words."

Damon and Claire's heads both turned at the mention of a Gilbert, and they saw Richard gesturing to a middle-aged man uncrossing his arms and stepping forward.

"Gilbert?" Claire muttered lowly so only Damon could hear. "What the hell is going on?"

"I have no idea," Damon muttered back.

"Welcome back, John!" Richard welcomed and held out his hand. "It's good to see you."

John Gilbert shook the Richard's hand as he took the floor. "Thank you, Mayor." After Richard stepped to the side again, John took in a breath. "Hello, everyone. It's good to see you. I wish it were under better circumstances. As a Founding Family member, I find it's my duty to report some very distressing news."

Damon leaned over to Sheriff Forbes, finally asking her about his confusion. "He's a Gilbert?"

Liz nodded. "Elena's uncle. His name's John, but I call him jackass."

"A hospital blood bank in the neighboring county of Amherst has reported several break-ins over the past two weeks," John explained to the rest of the members. Claire and Damon kept their game-faces on, but when they looked at each other, they both realized that they had another problem on their hands. "Seven hunters, four campers, and two state employees have been reported missing as well. All of this within a seventy-five-mile radius of Mystic Falls."

"O-Okay," Richard belittled as he stepped out, soothing John's suspicions. "No need to get alarmed _right _at this moment…"

"Meaning he doesn't wanna cancel the Founder's Day Kick-Off Party," Sheriff Forbes translated to the two beside her.

"You _think _all of your problems are over," John urged. "But I'm here to tell you…nothing's been solved."

Claire took in a heavy breath and shifted her feet. "Damn it. I _already_ hate this guy."

* * *

When Damon and Claire returned home from the Founder's meeting, it was already late at night. Christopher was in the study, reading a book with a glass of bourbon in his hand. When Claire finally found him, seeing as Damon had ditched her to go somewhere else in the large Salvatore mansion, she moved over to the couch and sat on the arm of the chair. Christopher looked up at her.

"Hey," he said, putting the book down to pay attention to his blonde vampire.

"Hey," Claire returned and jerked her head towards the book. "What are you reading?"

"'The Great Gatsby,'" Christopher told her, eyeing the book in his hands. "Before Stefan went out to see Elena, he suggested I read it to kill the time. Is this really what it was like back in the twenties?"

Claire shrugged. "Sort of. Well…I don't really know. I was always in the back of some library where the _real _party was. Prohibition was fun but not at the same time. Lots of blackouts. Stefan and I…we really went crazy." She didn't even want to _think _about the twenties, though. So many men, so little time. Not to mention, she and Damon first slept together at the end of that dreaded decade. "But I don't really want to talk about it."

"No?" Christopher asked as she leaned forward and kissed him, feeling in the mood to stop beating around the bush. He kissed her back, reserved, but he was learning by the second. "I was going to ask how your day was, but…"

Claire laughed against his lips. "Oh? Are we going to become one of _those _married couples? Asking each other how their day was?" She moved him so that he was being slid horizontally across the couch, and her body crawled onto his.

"Is that what married couples do nowadays? Sorry, I'm a little bit out with the times." He chuckled. Claire just shook her head against him.

"Well, just to let you know, those couples are _boring. _I'm not boring." She kissed him quickly, but the action was laced with so much desire that it was pulling both of them back to each other instantaneously.

"No, you are _definitely _not boring." Damon barged into the room yet again, pouring himself a glass of bourbon on the other side of the couch where the alcohol was. An annoyed Claire pulled herself up from Christopher and he shifted so that he was sitting straight. "And that I plan to use to my advantage. What are we doing with this whole John thing?"

"What's 'this whole John thing'?" Christopher asked, looking back at him. Damon sighed.

"Well, you see, Elena's uncle came back to town and he's trying to get the Founder's Council back on the trail of vampires—"

Claire held up a hand and pinched it shut to Damon. "Don't you ever just quit talking? You're like a goddamn wind-up toy." Damon just pulled his bourbon glass to his lips as she sighed. "I don't know what to do about John. Kill him?"

"Elena will hate us," Damon pointed out. Claire scoffed.

"When has that _ever _stopped you before?"

"You only want me to kill him so that Elena will hate me and not you. But if I do end up killing him, I'm telling her that it was _your _idea."

"I was kidding!" Claire amended. Damon just pointedly stared, and she threw her head into her hands and sighed again. "I really don't know what to do with John. The only asshole I can deal with right now is _you_."

"So use some of that anger and channel it towards John." Damon looked back and forth between Claire and Christopher. "I'll leave you to get back to your dry, missionary, married sex now."

Damon left the room shortly after the statement, and while Claire just exasperatedly leaned back on the couch, Christopher chuckled. "Do you two always speak to each other that way?"

Claire nodded. It wasn't so much as a lie, because they did speak to each other that roughly, but sometimes they didn't…_speak_ at all. "Almost always."

* * *

In the morning, Claire woke up to a loud vibrating sound. It was insistent and wouldn't stop. As it stirred Claire from her sleep, she could only hope for Damon's sake that it wasn't him. If it were, she would kick his ass from Mystic Falls to Kentucky. Knowing Damon, it couldn't have been urgent.

"Clarissa…" Christopher groaned beside her, rolling over in his sleep. "Your…stupid…phone…thing. Turn it off."

"Sorry," Claire apologized as she sat up from her bed and reached over to grab the phone. Fortunately, it wasn't Damon. It was Elena. As the phone call that had been persisting was sent to voicemail, Claire read over her texts and saw the number of voicemails she had.

**Something's wrong with Stefan.**

**I need to talk to you. **

**Claire, I'm worried about Stefan. Can you come over?**

"Jesus, Elena," Claire muttered, but put her phone back on the table. Christopher was now up, but he was still trying to go back to sleep. "Hey, I have to go to Elena's house. She needs me for something."

Christopher sighed and kept his eyes closed as he murmured, "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No, you can sleep," Claire assured him and swung her legs off the side of the bed. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Christopher mumbled an understanding and she left shortly after getting showered and changed. When she finally got to the Gilbert house, Elena answered the door with a deep sigh. "Oh, good. Thank you for coming."

Claire scoffed. "After the five hundred voicemails and texts? No problem." But once she crossed the threshold and Elena shut the door, she turned around. "What's wrong? You said you were worried about Stefan?"

Elena led them to the extended living room and began to vent. "Last night…he kind of got a little…out of control. How long before he goes back to normal?"

Claire shrugged. "I don't know. Damon said he's getting there. The tomb vampires torturing him was really traumatic, Elena. He probably felt helpless and all damsel-in-distress like. Just give him a little time." The blonde tried to soothe Elena, but the teenager just raised an eyebrow.

"Claire, I don't…I don't think we're talking about the same thing." Claire raised an eyebrow and Elena crossed her arms. "What did Damon tell you?"

Seeing Elena's expression, it was obvious to Claire. She had been lied to so many times it wasn't even a surprise. Without making a scene, she just took out a deep, exhausted exhale. "Not the truth, apparently."

A half an hour later, after Elena had told Claire about what _really _happened the night they rescued Stefan, there was a knock on the door. Claire was pacing by it, waiting, while Elena was sitting on the stairs waiting as well. Hearing the knock, Claire immediately turned to the door and opened it sourly.

"Good. The liar's here."

"You ask, I come. I'm easy like that," Damon whispered to her as he crossed the Gilbert threshold. "And who are you calling a liar?"

"You, _obviously_."

"Guys," Elena hissed, and Damon and Claire turned to her. She pointed to Jeremy in the kitchen and shook her head at them. Damon watched as Elena directed up the stairs and started after her room.

"No, Elena!" Damon shouted at her dramatically. "I will _not _go to your _bedroom_ with you!"

"Go upstairs, you _jackass_," Claire whispered angrily as she gripped Damon's arm and pulled him with her up to Elena's bedroom. A carefree Damon broke out of her hold and opened the door of Elena's room with an exaggerated awe of appreciation.

"Just like I remembered," the vampire hushed.

"Stop messing around," Elena commanded the leather-covered vampire in her room as she closed the door. As soon as it was shut, Claire walked over to Damon and shoved him.

"What the _hell _is the matter with you? You've been letting Stefan deal with this alone for all this time? I could've helped!"

"He didn't want you to know." Damon rolled his eyes and moved to Elena's bed. Claire crossed her arms at him, waiting for an explanation. "I'm serious. He was all broody and determined to do it alone. Besides, you were getting all up close and personal with Christopher again."

"That's no excuse," Claire pointed out. Damon just sighed and looked at Elena.

"Oh, by the way, Elena—did you know your uncle's kickin' it with the Founder's Council? Claire and I witnessed him _screwing up _everything we were trying to save."

Elena cut her gaze to Damon, surprised. "What?"

"Yep."

"Perfect." Elena threw her hands up exasperatedly. "We'll just add it to the growing list of how everything's falling apart."

Damon took the teddy bear he had scooped up from Elena's bed and pointed at a mess in the corner by the full-length mirror with the teddy's stuffed arm. "What happened right there?"

Elena looked over at the place Damon was referring to and sighed. "Uh…nothing."

"No, not nothing. Something." Claire crossed her arms and turned to Damon. "She's worried about Stefan. And since I apparently know _nothing _and you apparently know _everything, _I called you over to explain what the _hell _is going on with my best friend."

"He's fine," Damon assured her. "I'm handling it."

"How do you describe _handling _it, Damon? He lost control last night! That's not handling anything!"

"He says that everything's okay but he's _clearly _struggling. How long is it gonna take for him to get back to normal?" Elena asked, stepping forward to the eldest Salvatore on her bed.

Damon shrugged. "Few days, give or take."

"It's…_been _a few days."

"Give, then. I don't know!" Damon exclaimed tiredly. "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that he could really _hurt _someone," Claire argued as Damon got up from Elena's bed and began to make headway for the door. "He's not you, Damon! You and I both know that he's always had trouble when it comes to controlling his hunger."

"He doesn't _want _to be me," Damon pointed out. "But that doesn't mean, deep down, that he's _not._"

"So that's it, then?" Elena prompted, slapping her hands to her sides. "A few days? That's all you'll give me?"

"That's all I _can _give, Elena. So, unless you'd like me to stay for a slumber party, I have things to do. A party to get ready for." Damon walked towards the door, but just as his hand hovered over the doorknob, Claire spoke up.

"Wait. You're going to the Founder's Day Kick-Off?"

Damon sighed and turned around. "No. _We're _going to the Founder's Day Kick-Off." A smile twitched at his lips just as a frown settled upon Claire's.

* * *

Claire stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom and swept her long hair over her shoulder so she could clasp the necklace she held in her hand around her neck. Damon had made it a point to both Stefan, Claire, and Christopher that they were all going to the Founder's Day party so that they could get answers on John Gilbert's real reason for coming to Mystic Falls. Christopher's cover story was all set and ready to be told over and over again whenever anyone asked. Since he was one of the most important Founding Families in Mystic Falls, all he had to do was say he was someone's cousin. And, because Claire and Damon both knew of Logan Fell's death, he seemed like the easiest person to be related to.

After clasping the silver necklace on her collarbone, Claire shook out her hair and let it fall where it may—over her shoulders, down her back and over her dress. The tight, adult-looking dress was a nice compliment to her fair skin tone and light hair. It had been a while since she'd worn anything but a shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket, but she did have to admit that she liked dressing up to play the part of the regular, adult human.

But along with being adult, and human for that matter, she also had to face the fact that she was…_married. _Vampire or not, that fact remained true. So, when Claire looked over at her dresser, she took out a deep breath and realized what she was thinking about.

Her wedding rings.

She had shoved them in her jewelry box after they'd come back from rescuing Stefan and Christopher at Pearl's. Truth be told, Claire wanted to leave them there and never think about it. But every now and then, she would catch a glimpse of Christopher's wedding band and she would feel bad about it. That was a rarity for Claire. She hardly ever felt bad about anything—and even if she did, she didn't feel _all _that guilty about it. But this, it ate her up at the very core to watch the man that she married as a human cling to that idea of her. What if he didn't _like _the vampire version of her? What if he couldn't stand the dark person she'd become?

But what she feared the most, really, was that she wouldn't love him. Even as a human, the word 'love' had never left her mouth. It never did—for anyone—but shouldn't it have to the man that she married?

Hesitantly, Claire reached into the jewelry box and pulled out the two rings she was silently debating over. The diamond in her engagement ring caught the ray of florescent lighting and glinted, creating a flash of light.

_Beside a weak, old, sick, and dying William King sat a young, beautiful, and obliviously innocent little Clarissa King, hesitantly reading a page of a book she'd found in her father's study. The naughty seven-year-old had stolen the book from Edward to read to her grandfather, who had quite enjoyed her company for the last few months. No one else visited him in his temporary room at the King mansion—everyone was either afraid of him or couldn't fake being sad that he was dying. Clarissa was the only one he had company with. _

_As Clarissa struggled over a word, her grandfather mustered enough strength to murmur her name. "C…Clarissa…" _

_The young girl turned her head back at William. "Yes, Grandfather?" _

_But he was too sick—too weak. William could feel himself slipping, but he couldn't tell the little girl in his care to go. After all, she was all he had after his wife had died giving birth to Edward, who resented him for most things in life. Clarissa was the only one who cared enough to try to see that William wasn't a monster. And that was enough for William King to go peacefully. _

_His hand twitched, and it was a gesture caught by Clarissa, who smiled and reached forward to grab William's hand as she'd done plenty of times before to show just how much she loved him. "I'm right here, Grandfather. You can tell me whatever you'd like." _

_He couldn't. That was the problem. His heartbeat slowed, and in mere seconds, his life had been taken away from him. Clarissa waited for the longest time before shaking her Grandfather. _

"_Grandfather?" No response. The young girl stood up from her seat beside William. "Grandfather!" _

Snapping out of the memory, Claire angrily opened her jewelry box and shoved the rings inside, letting the box shut close with a loud, unappealing slam. There was no way she was putting on those wedding rings. She wasn't ready yet.

"Oh, God. I shouldn't be here." Stefan complained as he, Damon, Claire, and Christopher walked up the steps to the Founder's Hall for the Kick-Off party. Claire was trying to stop thinking about the memory she'd unwillingly relived, Christopher was worried about the town seeing right through him, Stefan was wrought with uneasiness, and Damon was just a man on a mission.

"Oh, come on. Don't be a downer. It's a party for the Founding Families. That would be _us. _It would be rude to skip it," the dark-haired vampire pointed out to his brother.

"You know, I…I really liked it a whole lot better when you hated everybody," Stefan said nervously, looking around at all the humans. Damon smirked.

"Oh, I still do. I just _love _that they _love _me." He chuckled.

Claire and Christopher walked through the threshold and Claire looked over at Damon. "I don't think he should be here, either, Damon."

Stefan sighed heavily. "I'm…still a little confused to how you found out. Was it Damon or Elena?"

Claire shot her best friend a pointed glare. "It doesn't matter because it _should've _been from _you." _Stefan didn't even have time to answer when Claire heard her name being called from another direction. All the vampires turned their heads to see Carol Lockwood in the other room, beckoning Claire into the room with her. Claire sighed. "Great. Carol Lockwood."

As she turned herself, Christopher asked her lowly, "Wait…who's Carol Lockwood?"

Claire looked at her husband. "The mayor's wife." She threw a glance over her shoulder at Stefan and Damon. "We'll catch up with you two later."

"Claire," Carol greeted the blonde vampire as she walked into the room. "Well, don't you look lovely?" It was a question posed as a very generous compliment. Claire gave the mayor's wife a smile.

"You too, Carol." Seeing the nosy Mrs. Lockwood eyeing her husband, Claire turned to him and gestured. "Um…Christopher, this is Carol Lockwood. Carol, this is my husband, Christopher Fell."

Carol and Christopher shook hands, but hearing Christopher's name sparked instant curiosity in Carol. "Fell?" she repeated. Christopher nodded.

"My cousin was Logan Fell." Christopher relayed his cover story perfectly, earning a smile from Claire's lips. "I heard about his…err…_extended _vacation." Obviously, Logan's vampire death was covered up, and by saying this, Christopher was telling Carol that he knew all about it. Being Claire's husband and all, it was hardly a surprise to Carol.

"It is unfortunate," Carol agreed, nodding with understanding eyes. She looked over at Clarissa, who brought another smile upon her lips for Carol to see. "Claire, you never told me you were married."

"We've…" Claire swallowed, looking at Christopher for a moment, "…been separated for a while, but we decided to give it another try." A "little while" happened to really be the span of a hundred years.

"Well, that's inspiring." It was obvious that Carol was covering up her distaste for the modern ways of the world—divorce. Claire wanted to roll her eyes. The only reason Carol was still married to her husband was because she cared too much about her image to leave him. After all, she was hitting on Damon every chance she got. Carol's gaze drifted between the married couple before finally settling on Claire. "Well, listen, Claire, I was talking it over with the other women on the Miss Mystic Falls council for the pageant next week and, if you're up to it, we would love to have your help with the girls. They react better to adults closer to their ages."

The Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Claire was actually surprised they still had those. The first one had been pushed back in 1864 because of the vampire hunting, but it eventually did take place. She figured that it would be a lost tradition by now. Instead, here Carol was, asking for her help with it.

"Uh…yeah," Claire agreed, having no other choice. Saying no would make Carol either hate her or suspect her. "Sure. Of course. It sounds great."

"Wonderful," Carol chimed before spotting her husband in her vision. "If you'll excuse me. Christopher, it was lovely to meet you."

"You, too," Christopher parted with her just as Carol walked around Claire to her husband without a glance behind her shoulder. When she was gone, Christopher turned to his wife. "Miss Mystic Falls pageant?" he questioned.

Claire looked at him and shrugged. "Why the hell not?" She sighed heavily and watched as a small smile twitched on Christopher's lips. "Come on, let's get a drink. It's gonna be a long night."

The two moved through the empty crowd in the room they were left in and walked over to the bar just as the music turned from boring, classical, and uptight to an actual upbeat song. Claire and Christopher watched as Stefan dragged Elena out to the dance floor and almost everyone started to dance out in the center of the room. They fought their way through the incoming crowd to the bar just as everyone let loose in the middle of the room.

Before Christopher could order their drinks, Kelly Donovan snatched him right out of Claire's grasp.

"Ooh," Kelly cooed, a drunken smile on her face. "Who are _you_?" As Christopher opened his mouth to tell the woman his name, Kelly shook her head. "You know what? I don't even care. Come on! We're dancing."

Claire seemed to not have a choice in the matter when Kelly up and pulled him out onto the floor again. Christopher looked back at her for permission, but Claire just smiled and turned to the bar, not willing to put up a fight with that slut, Kelly Donovan. It didn't matter, anyway. She needed a drink. _Bad. _

"Have I entered an alternate universe where Stefan is _fun_?" Damon mocked as he came beside Claire while she received her drink from the bartender. Claire sighed looking at a happy-go-lucky Stefan dancing with his girlfriend with a foreign smile on his face.

"I can't stop worrying about him, Damon," Claire grumbled, shaking her head. "As much as he says he's going to be okay, I don't think he's going to be okay. He's losing it." When she brought the glass of alcohol up to her lips, she found that there was more ice in the glass than she cared for, but she downed it anyway.

Damon sighed. "He'll be okay. Eventually. One way or another." A playful smirk came onto his lips, and as Claire watched it form, she shook her head.

"No. Damon, I swear to _God _if you try and get Stefan back on the human stuff—" she started, but Damon cut her off.

"Blah, blah, blah, you'll kill me. You know, you keep recycling the same threats," he noted as he pulled his champagne glass to his lips and drank. Claire scoffed.

"I wish I didn't have to threaten you. I wish you weren't so _evil. _Then I wouldn't have to." Claire turned around and set her empty glass on the counter so the bartender could take it. Damon sighed.

"Well, when you wish upon a star…" he mused, earning the blonde vampire to frown and glare up at him from the corners of her eyes. Damon smiled and set his champagne glass down on the bar as well, even though it was half full. He extended his hand. "Come on. Dance with me."

Claire turned away from him without even considering his hand. "No thanks. I already told you, I hate being scraps."

"But you're not scraps," Damon pointed out. "You're the first person I asked to dance all night."

"Well I'll be the first person to turn you down, then, too."

Damon let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine. Suit yourself." He pulled his champagne glass back to him and downed the rest of it. With a hiss from the alcohol, Damon once again set the glass down on the counter, it now being empty. "Oh. Would you look at that? I seem to be all out of champagne. I should go find a bar…somewhere."

Claire watched as Damon slipped away with a small smile on his lips, obviously being childish. It was when Damon walked away when she felt someone pull her in a different direction, and suddenly, she was in Stefan's arms as he swayed them side-to-side to the beat of the music. Claire laughed nervously.

"Don't you _ever _do that again," she scolded the younger Salvatore, but didn't pull away from him. Stefan smiled.

"Come on," Stefan groaned happily. Claire could smell the alcohol all over his breath. "You look like you could use some fun."

Claire looked into Stefan's eyes and sighed. "Okay…did I miss the part where you and Damon did that whole _Freaky Friday _body-switch thing? Because it's not fun for me. It's just making me worry about you even more."

Stefan twirled Claire under his arm and pulled her back to him with a relaxed smile on his lips. "Don't. I'm fine. I'm just a little drunk, that's all." Claire gave him a look. "Okay…a _lot _drunk. But do you blame me? Honestly?"

Claire thought about it silently, and then she sighed, giving in. "No. I guess I don't. But that doesn't change the fact that you should've told me you were struggling. I'm not Lexi, but I…I _think _I can help."

Stefan nodded. "I know. I'm sorry." Claire could sense the apology, but she still felt like he didn't mean it. Eventually, Stefan just let out a deep breath. "Okay. Can we stop talking about this? I want to party like it's nineteen-fifty."

Both Claire and Stefan smiled, remembering when she'd first said that. Eventually, Claire laughed. "You're ridiculous," she noted and Stefan just pulled her out of his grasp and twirled her again, and neither one of them talked about his diet after that.

After a few songs, Claire had switched from being Stefan's partner to Christopher's, seeing as Kelly Donovan found someone else to toy with. While Claire and Christopher were laughing and dancing, trying to put all dark vampire thoughts out of their head and finally focus on being a real couple, they were soon pulled straight back into the real world that they lived in.

"Whoa!" a voice shouted on the dance floor, causing both Claire and Christopher to look up to find that a man had turned around and had started scolding Elena, who was with Stefan. "Watch it!"

Elena just smiled and laughed. "I'm sorry. My fault. I'm clumsy."

The man just laughed bitterly. "Then get off the dance floor," he suggested rudely. Stefan began to make his way from behind Elena to in front of her just as Elena's face fell.

"Excuse me?"

"That's no way to talk to a lady," Stefan informed the rude man, his eyes drained of all the alcohol and now serious and deadly. Claire and Christopher shared a glance before walking over to the commotion that went unnoticed by the regular humans.

"Whatever," said the man as he turned away. Stefan reached out and pulled the man back to him with a brute force.

"Stefan," Claire interrupted as she got to him just as Stefan looked into the man's eyes and started his compulsion.

"I think you need to apologize," Stefan commanded the man, his pupils dilating to control the human's mind.

The man's eyes moved over to Elena and he muttered in a monotone, "I'm sorry."

"Stefan," Claire repeated, her voice more forceful this time. "Let him go."

After a split second of hesitation, Stefan finally released the man from his hold and Claire watched as the man turned his shoulder to walk away. Before he could even get a step into his exit, Stefan jerked his arm back again and grabbed the rude man by his collar.

"Stefan," Christopher complained, looking between the angered vampire and the scared human. "What are you doing? Just let him go!"

Stefan looked back into the man's eyes again, having absolutely no remorse on controlling someone's mind. "Now say it like you mean it."

Again, the man looked at Elena. "I'm really, _really _sorry." His voice was dull and bland, and at this rate, Stefan would never be satisfied with the man's apology. Elena finally spoke up behind her boyfriend.

"Stefan, it's fine."

"Now walk away." The young Salvatore pushed the man from him, all while holding his gaze, and Claire and Christopher watched while the rude man exited, this time uninterrupted. Stefan turned around and brushed Elena's hair off her shoulder, trying to make sure she was okay. Elena was practically shaking at Stefan's touch, scared of what he was capable of.

And, at that point, Claire was starting to become afraid of the exact same thing.

* * *

"Thank you," Damon said to the bartender who handed Damon a glass of bourbon, straight. Claire sighed.

"Great," she said loudly while coming up beside Damon. She had left Christopher to keep an eye on Stefan while she went to talk to Damon about the scene his brother had caused. "So…while your brother is compelling some schmuck to apologize over and over again, you're just nursing a couple glasses of bourbon. Classic Damon."

Damon let out a deep breath. "You know, if I were you, I wouldn't be concerned with _my _brother, I would be concerned with _Elena's_."

At this, Claire raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Jeremy's been asking questions about Vicki Donovan's death."

The other vampire kept her eyebrow up. "That vampire who went off the rails that you and Stefan had to kill? Her death was ruled as a drug overdose. What questions are there to ask?"

"How about…'Oh, but Sheriff…someone buried her. Who would do that?' I know! I know! _Me!_" Damon mocked with a whispered tone. Claire rolled her eyes at Damon's childish humor. "I mean, I could compel him but he's wearing vervain."

Claire frowned. "He's Elena's brother, Damon. Let her handle this one. I'll tell her about it when I go back to find Christopher. He's probably keeping her company, anyway."

Damon laughed to himself. "And you don't mind that? I mean, after all, you do _think_ he's your husband."

Claire shrugged. "I'm not the jealous type." Damon just scoffed at this, and her blue orbs cut to Damon as she spoke with an angered tone. "And what do you mean I '_think' _he's my husband? I remember my wedding like it was yesterday. I also remember _you _barging in and trying to ruin it."

Damon looked up, his blue eyes capturing her own. "If you remembered your wedding like it was yesterday, you'd remember that the vow was 'til death do you part'." Claire scowled at him in major disapproval at his immaturity. His lips just turned into a sad smile. "I hate to break it to you, but death has _definitely _done you both part."

"That's a technicality, Damon," Claire told him, breaking eye contact with him to look away. "And I don't _think _he's my husband, he _is _my husband. There's no debating that."

For a moment, Claire thought that Damon had given up on the topic when she heard silence beside her, and she was relieved over it. But, then, she heard him sigh and she saw him extend something to her out of the corner of her eye. When she turned her head, she saw that it was a freshly cut red rose, probably from the bouquet right beside him.

"Now, _if _that were even true, you would be wearing those wedding rings. But you aren't. And you and I both know that you won't any time soon." Damon shrugged as Claire took the rose from his hand and kept her eyes locked with his. Taking Claire's silence as his victory token, Damon brushed past her. Claire's head turned to look after him as she processed his words in her brain.

Behind her, Christopher watched as his wife twirled with the red rose in her hand and turned back to the bar. He could see the contemplation clearly on her face before she turned around and spotted him and smiled. He gave her a weak one back, and Claire walked up to him with a sigh. Christopher just gestured towards the rose.

"That was nice of Damon."

Claire shrugged. "It's just Damon being Damon…and he never does anything nice." Her words were a blatant lie, but she moved past it quickly. "Hey, where's Elena?"

Christopher looked back into the main room. "I think she's still dancing with her friend Matt or something. Stefan took off somewhere, I came to find you so we can track him down and make sure he's okay."

Claire inhaled sharply. "Yeah…that'll have to wait. I have to talk to Elena."

"What about?" Christopher asked as Claire started moving with him towards the main room where Elena was last left.

"Her brother," Claire answered. It only took her a couple minutes to find Elena in the crowd, and it took her barely a minute to tell Elena that her brother might know about vampires. Elena assured her that Jeremy didn't know anything, but when Claire told Elena about what Damon said he was asking Sheriff Forbes about, Elena immediately took off to find her younger brother. Shortly after the teenager had left, Claire and Christopher found Stefan over by the bar, compelling drinks out of the bartender.

"I'll take that," Christopher said as he walked up to Stefan and snatched the alcohol out of his hand. Claire was right behind him, and she turned to face Stefan as soon as she reached him. Stefan looked at Christopher with annoyed eyes as he downed the rest of Stefan's drink. "What?" he asked when he caught Stefan glaring. "I haven't had alcohol in over a century. Give me a break."

"_You _are really, really starting to scare the crap out of me, Stefan," Claire scolded him as she poked at his chest. Stefan sighed and shifted at her touch, turning his cheek to avoid hearing her lecture. "First keeping a secret from me, then drinking yourself into oblivion, and even compelling a guy to keep apologizing to your girlfriend even though she wanted you to let it go? You're not _fine, _Stefan."

"I will be, Claire. Okay? Trust me on this," Stefan snapped at her, his clouded green eyes pouring into hers. "I know how to wean myself off of it."

Claire shook her head. "No. No, _Lexi _knew how to get you off the human stuff. You never could by yourself. Just let me help you and I'll—"

Suddenly, Damon came up beside Christopher and cleared his throat, interrupting the conversation at hand. All three vampires turned to him and watched as Damon spoke carefully. "Okay…let's vote. Do you three wanna hear the bad news or the _really _bad news?"

"Bad news," Claire said, suspicious.

"Really bad news," Christopher told him with the same amount of suspicion in his tone. Stefan just cleared his throat and hummed.

"Mm…actually, I don't want _any _news, Damon."

Damon rolled his eyes. "All right. Let me rephrase. Do you wanna hear how the council's back in vampire mode _or _how I just killed Uncle John Gilbert?" A smile slid onto Damon's lips and Claire straightened.

"What?" Stefan asked, knotting his eyebrows. Claire snarled.

"Oh, you've _got _to be kidding me."

"It was your idea in the first place," Damon argued pointedly. She opened her mouth to retort, but Damon took her words. "Great party by the way, huh?" he proposed and turned around, walking in the opposite direction. Christopher, Claire, and Stefan all took after him, but when Stefan caught a whiff of fresh human blood, he couldn't resist staying behind.

Claire and Christopher followed Damon all the way to the parlor, unaware that Stefan was too preoccupied to keep up.

"I wasn't _serious _when I told you to kill him, Damon," Claire argued with the eldest Salvatore as they came to a stop. Christopher stood on the other side of Claire while her attention was focused on the stupidity of Damon Salvatore, who was focused on all the hot, pretty, fresh human girls roaming around in tight dresses. He didn't lose one bit of his chipper attitude while responding.

"Well I thought it was a good idea. He knew about the tomb vampires. He knew that _I _was the one who wanted them out. Which means he knew about me. Which means he knew about Stefan. Which means he knew about _you_—need I go on?" Damon asked Claire as she began to process Damon's actions. Again, she was just about to argue with Damon when her eyes caught sight of John Gilbert stepping inside of the booming parlor, looking just as alive as he did earlier in the morning.

Damon's smile immediately turned flat upon seeing John's lively face. Claire was silent for a moment before she said to Damon, without taking her eyes off of John, "Either you were lying to me about killing him or Uncle John Gilbert just turned into a vampire."

Damon's eyebrows just knotted. "You've _got_ to be kidding me."

* * *

"So it was the ring that brought him back?" Claire asked Damon as he brought Alaric to her and Christopher. The crowd was beginning to dwindle as the night came to an end. The ringing of the bell to signal the countdown to Founder's Day had already taken place, and it was all anyone really came for. Claire's eyes cut to Alaric. "Where the hell did you get that damn ring?"

"Isobel," Alaric repeated for the blonde vampire. He had already told this to Damon, and just like he did, Claire slowly went through the process in her mind of tying one thing to another. Damon nodded at her.

"Yep. Been there. Done that. Now we're on the same page. This guy's a problem. We need to get rid of him."

"We can't just kill him, Damon," Christopher reasoned in a low voice. Damon looked over at him. "I mean…despite the fact that he'll just come back, we're in a room full of crowded people. It's not worth the exposure."

"Okay, I'm going to lay this out real simple. To both of you," Damon said, looking back and forth between Claire and Christopher. "John. Knows. Everything. So if we don't do something about it, he _will_. Plain and simple."

"Fine," Claire told him, nodding. "Fine. We'll do something about it, Damon. But we can't _kill _him. Especially not _here_."

She looked around at the room full of people, just like Christopher had mentioned. The exposure wasn't worth it. Damon gritted his teeth, tired of arguing, but when he saw Uncle Gilbert leave, he just took off without a word before either of the two righteous vampires with him could stop him.

"Going somewhere? Hmm?" Damon walked outside, following the Gilbert, and Alaric, Claire, and Christopher followed him.

"Never like to be the last one to leave a party. It's too desperate." Damon hummed in agreement. "You here to kill me again? Or are you gonna let Mr. Saltzman do your dirty work?"

"Okay. So you obviously know who I am." Alaric came to a stop, causing John, Damon, Claire, and Christopher to come to one as well.

"I do," John answered. "Alaric Saltzman, the high school History teacher with a secret." The Gilbert paused and looked to his right to see Claire and Christopher just a few feet away from Alaric. "And you two. Clarissa King and Christopher Fell. It's nice to see that marriages can last even after a hundred years of separation."

Claire gave a sour smile. "Well, you know what they say, John. Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"You sure know a lot for someone who just came to town," Damon accused. John turned his head to him and inhaled sharply.

"More than you can imagine, Damon." He walked around the vampire. "My knowledge of his town goes beyond anything that any of you or the council knows. So, if you were planning on some clever high-speed, snatch-ring, vamp kill move, know that if I die, everything I know goes to the council." Damon turned his head, annoyed and angry at the same time. "Including the fascinating little tale of the original Salvatore brothers and their present day return to Mystic Falls." Things went silent for a moment before John turned his attention to Claire. "And, of course, the lovely girl-next-door."

Alaric stepped forward. "How'd you get that ring?"

"I inherited one. My brother, Gray, the other. This was his," John responded as he waved the ring on his finger at Alaric. "And I wouldn't have given mine to Isobel had I known she'd hand it over to another guy."

"So you did know her," Damon accused.

"Who do you think sent her your way when she wanted to become a vampire?" John proposed with a sick smile on his face. Damon nodded to him.

"You sent her?"

"Guilty! Why, did you think someone else sent her?" Damon shrugged. "Maybe Katherine Pierce?"

"Katherine?" Christopher repeated as Damon straightened in front of him, staring John down.

"How do you know about Katherine?" the dark-haired vampire asked.

"How do I know anything, Damon?"

Damon stepped forward, now enraged. "What do you _want_?"

"So many questions." John _tsked _and looked to Alaric, moving on. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ric. I've heard so much about you." His gaze drifted behind Alaric to the vampire couple in the back. "Claire. Christopher. Enjoy your marriage. If it lasts, of course."

With one last look at Damon, John turned on his heel, and the three vampires and sketchy History teacher were left to watch him walk away, knowing that there was nothing they could do.

* * *

"Is it always this crazy in Mystic Falls?" Christopher asked as he put his suit jacket down on the bed and unbuttoned the top of his shirt, exhausted. Claire took off her necklace and set it inside of her jewelry box, trying to push the sight of the silver wedding rings out of her mind. Damon's words still were branded into her memory, but she didn't pay attention to it. She couldn't.

A light laugh escaped her lips. "You'd be surprised how crazy it gets in Mystic Falls. It's why I try so hard to never visit this town. It sucks you in. It's your typical hellmouth."

As his wife turned around, Christopher cocked an eyebrow at her from the bench at the end of the bed. "Hellmouth?"

Claire smiled. "We'll have a _Buffy _marathon one day. You'll love it, I promise." After a moment of private thinking, Claire's smile dropped. Along with Damon's words that rung through her mind, John's did, too. Eventually, she opened her mouth, and Christopher watched as she struggled to get words out. "What do you think John meant? When he said 'if it lasts'?"

Christopher sighed and rose from his sitting position to walk over to Claire. "I think that John Gilbert _thinks _he knows everything, but in all reality, he knows _nothing_." Her husband's hand brushed the side of her face, and Claire softened at the warm touch. "He doesn't know us. How could he possibly know anything about our marriage?"

Claire nodded and reached up to cover Christopher's hand with her own. "Yeah. I guess you're right. Maybe Damon was right to kill him. Even if he did come back from the dead by a magical ring."

Christopher let out a light laugh, but the name was still echoing in his mind. _Damon. Damon. Damon. _He couldn't help himself. "Speaking of Damon…what was that tonight? The rose he gave you?"

Claire knotted her eyebrows. "I told you. It was Damon being Damon." Christopher stayed silent, and Claire shifted under his touch. "Hey. I didn't get jealous when Kelly Donovan's grimy little hands were all over you. The least you can do is the same for me. Damon and I don't even get along anymore. Our fights worsened over the decades." _They stopped, too, _Claire's subconscious reminded her.

"Sometimes, hatred is a very strong fuel for passion," Christopher reminded her. Claire scowled.

"I _married _you and you're still questioning me about Damon Salvatore? I thought we were over this."

Both fell silent for a long time until Christopher gave it up, finally just giving his wife a small smile. _Pick your battles. _It was something Stefan had mentioned to him when they were alone in the house while Claire was out with Damon. Christopher repeated it like a mantra to avoid carrying on his unnecessary fight. "You know what? You're right. I'm sorry I even brought it up."

Claire shook her head and squeezed his hand. "It's okay. I get it. But I married _you_. _You_. Not Damon."

She leaned forward and kissed him quickly. It was merely just a peck on the lips, but when they both took a second to realize the situation they were in—alone, in their bedroom, with no one to interrupt—it suddenly turned into something different. Christopher leaned forward, pulling his lips back to Claire's, and not a bone in her body rejected the kiss. It egged it on, in fact, and no more words were said. No more thoughts about Damon Salvatore roamed through either of their minds. Claire's hands found the buttons on Christopher's shirt and ripped them clean off, pushing the material down his chest and onto the floor. His nimble fingers didn't even have to search for the zipper on her dress because it was right underneath them. The zipper was pulled down in nearly a millisecond, and pretty soon, everything else came off with it. All Claire had to do was push, and Christopher fell onto the bed, and she fell right with him.

* * *

Damon sat downstairs in the Salvatore house, holding the cold glass of blood to his forehead in front of the fire in the study. He was wallowing, somewhat, over the fact that John had been the one to send Isobel to him and not Katherine. The one shred of hope he'd clung onto had drifted away into the wind.

Eventually, Damon heard the sounds of Stefan's footsteps as he entered the study. He knew it was Stefan because Claire and her so-called "husband" were upstairs carrying on like there wasn't another vampire in the house. It only made that dark cloud over Damon's head turn even darker.

But Claire and Christopher couldn't be his top concern. John Gilbert was.

"We have a problem, Stefan," Damon mumbled as his brother walked around the couch. "And when I say 'problem', I mean global _crisis_. Seems Uncle John has a—" When Damon looked up to see his brother, he found that Stefan was deathly pale and completely unhinged. It was written all over his face. Damon could see right through it, and he just cocked his head to the side. "You don't look so good. It's different this time, isn't it? The need is _too strong_. Of course it would be after all these years."

With a sigh, Damon purposely set the glass of chilled blood he had down on the wooden table beside the couch and he rose from his seat, eyeing his poor, broken sibling. With a clap on the shoulder, Damon just said, "Have a good night, brother."

Stefan just swayed, completely lost and transfixed on the blood that Damon didn't plan on taking back this time. Stefan didn't even know he was doing even walkin towards the blood until it wound up in his hands and he was slowly contemplating what to do with it. The painful decision dragged on, and a hesitant Stefan fought with his inner demons to resist the urge.

His inner demons won. _Damon _won.

Stefan pulled the glass to his lips, and once that first taste of sufficient blood hit his taste buds, he was a goner. The glass was empty by his second swallow.


	11. Miss Mystic Falls

**Hey everyone. So I know there were other things I needed to update before this but I'm trying to get Season 1 over with so we can get to the good stuff, so I decided to go ahead and write/upload this chapter. Next up is 1x20, Blood Brothers, and we'll be one step closer to the finale! **

**Enjoy the chapter! Review at the end if you can, please. **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Miss Mystic Falls**

_Claire's feather-light touch seemed innocent, but it was vicious. With just a single tap, she had her husband lying flat on their bed, and the next thing he knew, she was on top of him, straddling his waist. Wasting no time, Claire brought her lips to Christopher's and he kissed her back with a need he hadn't felt before. 1864 was different from the time they were in now. Back then, things were nurturing. Calm. Serene. At least, that's what it'd been like with Claire the very first time they consummated their marriage. He couldn't speak for the others in Mystic Falls at the time, but for their relationship, it was like that. It was love. But with these different times came a different intensity from his wife, and a different intensity for himself, as well. Claire was ruthless in the best way possible—she drove their kiss harder and further without mercy. Christopher's hands came up to cup her face, grabbing strands of stray pale blonde hair that fell between the cracks of his fingertips. Claire practically whimpered in his mouth as she arched her back in desperation. _

_Suddenly, there was a tsk beside the bed, and Claire and Christopher both broke away to find Damon leaning against the chest with a scowl on his face. Claire shrieked and pulled herself off of Christopher, who had risen to his elbows to look at Damon. _

"_You're doing it all wrong," Damon informed the bronze-haired vampire on the bed. _

_Claire practically snarled, "What the hell are you doing, Damon? Get out of my goddamn room!" _

_Damon ignored her. Christopher ignored her. Her husband just frowned. "What do you mean I'm doing something wrong? There isn't a wrong way to do this." _

_Damon rolled his eyes. "Of course there isn't a wrong way to do it, you idiot, but there is a right way. And that wasn't the right way. She doesn't like to be in control like that." _

"_And how would you know what she likes?" the other vampire scoffed. Claire just swung herself off the bed, tired of being ignored. Damon straightened when he saw her movement. _

"_I don't know what game you're trying to play with me, Damon, but you need to knock it off and go mind your own goddamn business! I said, get out!" Claire warned him, fire tracing the serenity of her eyes. Damon took step closer, limiting the space between them. _

"_When will you stop lying to yourself?" the dark-haired vampire purred, a smirk on his face. Claire tried to step back, but she just ended up backing into the nightstand, which shuddered when she hit it. Damon kept stepping forward until he trapped her between his body and the nightstand. "He's not what you want. He's never what you wanted." _

"_You're wrong." Claire swallowed hard, trying to get Damon's scent out of her head. "You're wrong. I…" She tried to choke it out, but it wouldn't come up. The word just couldn't leave her mouth. It could never. _

_Damon chuckled. "You love him?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes. Claire's breathing quickened when she felt Damon lean closer. "How can you love him if you can't even say it?" _

"_I do," Claire tried, but it was failing. She was failing. "I do. I have to." _

"_You have to?" Damon repeated to her before he shook his head and tsked again. Claire looked over to the bed where she last left Christopher, but he was no longer there. He was gone. "You don't have to do anything. You're Clarissa King." He whispered the name like it was a title, and in a way, it kind of was._

_Damon's strong hands moved to her waist, and Claire gasped when he pulled her up to sit on the nightstand, fitting his body into hers. An angry scream threatened at Claire's throat, but when Damon was just inches away from her, she couldn't get it out. She was frozen in place like she'd been turned to ice. Damon kept coming closer, his fingers tilting her chin up, until she finally just let her eyes __flutter closed as she waited..._

Claire shot up from her bed, making the mattress shudder and her companion start to wake. Her skin was sweating, but lucky for her, she'd put her hair up in a messy bun before she'd fallen asleep, so it wasn't sticking to her face. Christopher, having been violently awaked by her jolt, opened his eyes and pulled himself up, his voice just a grumble.

"Are you okay?" It was spoken tiredly, but nonetheless full of concern.

Claire brought a fist up to her mouth nervously and looked down at her husband, catching up with his words. "Huh? Um…yeah, I'm fine." She coughed. "Bad dream, that's all."

A grumpy Christopher just turned to the side and grabbed his new phone to check the time. He was still learning all the features the mobile phone had to offer, but it was a nice way to cheat the system. "It's three-thirty," Christopher muttered as he put his phone back down on the nightstand on his side of the bed and rolled back into the sheets. "Get some rest, Clarissa."

Claire leaned back in her bed, her head hitting the soft pillow. Christopher had rolled onto his side so that only his back was facing Claire, but she took a look at him. When her head returned to looking at the ceiling, all she could do was force the image of Damon Salvatore trying to kiss her out of her head and hoped that it stayed out.

The blonde vampire turned on her own side, folded her hands beneath her head, and tried to sleep again.

She didn't end up getting much more than an hour of sleep after waking up from that dream. She tossed and turned, but when the alarm hit and told her that it was time to get up for the day, she'd barely had a drop of sleep. By the time Claire and Christopher came down to start the new, exciting, possibly deadly day, Stefan had surprisingly already gone out to school.

"You think that's a good idea?" Claire asked as she sipped her breakfast blood from a crystal glass. Damon was doing the same, but he also nursed a glass of bourbon with it. "Stefan going back to school so fast? If he's not in control…"

Damon groaned. "God, you're such a worrier. Relax. Stefan can handle himself. He'll be fine. You and I however, will not be," Damon pointed out. Claire raised an eyebrow at him. "Hello? Sheriff Forbes? John Gilbert? Mystic Falls hunting vampires again? We need to put a stop to this."

"Okay," Claire agreed, a little shaken by Damon's insistence. "Fine. What do we do?"

There wasn't a plan in motion—of course, there was _never _a plan in motion when it came to Damon, but if there was one thing that they needed to do, it was see Sheriff Forbes again. She had called Damon to inform him that there was news on vampires and she had also asked him to come down to the Founder's Hall. After positive reassurance on Damon's part, he got Sheriff Forbes to agree to let Claire go down there, as well. Claire didn't _want _to go with Damon, but the best way for them to handle things was to go together.

Unfortunately, the very problem they were trying to get rid of happened to be in Sheriff Forbes's trusted circle, too—John Gilbert was waiting for them with a smug smile right when they stepped into the Founder's Hall.

"There was a disturbance at the hospital blood bank last night. Some of the supply was compromised," Liz told Damon and Claire, filling them in on the situation at hand.

"Compromised?" Damon repeated. "You mean…stolen."

Liz nodded. "We almost missed it. The inventory records had been altered. But when the night manager was questioned, he had no recollection of changing them."

"Meaning the vampire who stole the blood used mind control to hide the theft," John clarified. Claire bit down her tongue while Damon turned to John.

"I know what she meant."

"We wouldn't have noticed if John not alerted us to recent discrepancies at other hospital blood banks in the county," Liz commented to both undercover vampires. Claire gave a tart smile.

Damon let out a deep sigh and stepped closer to John. "Well, lucky for us, we have…_John_."

Claire nodded in agreement. "Uh huh. What a do-gooder. So what are we doing to prevent this from happening again?" Claire asked Sheriff Forbes, who was just about to explain the same thing even if Claire hadn't inquired.

"We're stepping up security at the hospital…giving the guards vervain just in case."

"Sheriff," John intervened, stepping forward with an early glass of alcohol. "Might I offer a suggestion? Why don't Damon, Claire, and I all put our heads together on this one? I'm sure, with the three of us on it, we can track down whoever's doing this."

Claire and Damon's eyes both cut into John. Claire just smiled again. "Oh, lovely. I was waiting for a brilliant idea."

Sheriff Forbes shrugged. "Truthfully, I could use the extra hands," she confessed. Her eyes moved back and forth between Damon and Claire. "Is that something you two would be willing to do?"

Damon nodded and tried his best to act humanly innocent. "Well, of course. I mean, if it'll help."

"And I'll help in any way that I can," Claire said, giving Sheriff Forbes a genuine smile this time. Too much shit went down in Mystic Falls for Claire to really hold a grudge against a human. "But I am working with Carol Lockwood getting ready for the pageant coming up so…I might not be as big of a help as I might seem."

"Well, I think we'll make a great team," John piped up from behind Claire and Damon. Genuineness lacked in his tone. "Don't you two?"

Damon sighed and turned to the annoying Uncle Gilbert. "John, whatever Claire and I can do to help keep this town safe. Even if it means spending time with _you_." Damon gave a polite smile, to which John returned, but there was a hidden meaning behind both of those smiles.

When Claire and Damon were outside and by Damon's car, free of all prying human eyes and ears, Claire let out a groan. "I am so _sick _of that John Gilbert! He's got this face that just makes me want to—"

"Tear into his throat and never look back?"

"Exactly!"

"I understand completely," Damon agreed as the two of them climbed into his car. Then, he sighed. "But we've got more important things to deal with. Like who's stealing that blood."

Claire looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't you?" Damon looked over at her, giving the blonde a pointed glance. She just threw her hands up into the air. "Hey! It just seems like something you would do."

"I wouldn't be that _careless_," the other vampire snapped while he backed out of the parking space he was in and began to head back to the boarding house. Claire sighed.

"Then who could it be?"

Damon shrugged. "What about Christopher?"

"I'm forgetting that you asked me that."

"It's a valid question," Damon defended himself. Claire scoffed. "What? He's been trapped underneath the ground for a hundred years. It makes sense he'd be hungry."

"Damon," Claire snapped, earning Damon's attention. "It's not him. I've been teaching him how to feed from blood bags and we even tried the vein once. He stopped on his own will. It's not him," she repeated.

"Fine," Damon said after a while and relaxed against the wheel. "Then it's got to be the others. Anna. Pearl. The other tomb vampires."

"That makes the most sense," Claire agreed. Silence filled the car for a while before Claire turned her head at Damon and watched him while he drove. "You don't think it could be…?"

A name washed over the two of them silently, but they both knew how to fill in the blank. It, too, made sense. Damon knew very well that his brother could've gone off the rails. He left that cup for him the night of the Founder's Day Kick-Off. It was possible.

"Maybe." Damon turned his attention back to the road. "But let's hope, for both our sakes, that it's not."

* * *

On top of trying to tame John Gilbert and trying to get the town off of the blood trail that led to her vampire existence, Claire was also swamped with helping Carol Lockwood with the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Carol was a control freak and she did much of the work herself, but everything that went through her, Carol also had Claire as a second opinion. It wasn't much of a job, though—if Claire liked something Carol didn't like, Carol would have it her way. If Carol liked something Claire didn't, Mrs. Lockwood would go with it regardless. Claire was starting to regret her decision to ever say yes to the mayor's wife, but what kind of fellow citizen would she be if she had declined?

When she got home from helping Carol announce the Founder's Court, where surprisingly Elena Gilbert and undoubtedly Caroline Forbes had both been announced, Damon had quickly filled her in on the fact that their hope for earlier in the morning had been shot. Anna and Pearl, unless they were lying, were not responsible for taking the blood. That could only mean one thing.

Stefan.

"You really think it could be him?" Christopher asked Claire as they waited in the study for Damon to try and get the truth out of Stefan. The elder brother was highly doubtful that Stefan would give them any kind of truth, so he made Claire stay with her husband until further notice.

Claire shrugged. "I don't really know who else it could be. I didn't steal the blood. You didn't. Damon didn't. Anna didn't. It's got to be him, which means he relapsed." A hard sigh escaped her mouth. "And _that_ means that we're all going to be in for one hell of a rude awakening."

"Is it that bad? I mean, he was a little out of control at the Kick-Off party but to rob a blood bank dry? Would he do something like that?" Christopher asked the pacing Claire in front of him. She peered to the side to see Christopher and the tiniest nod from Claire's head was answer enough. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Damon come to the threshold of the study and make his way into the room. Claire took in a deep breath.

"Did he say anything?"

Damon shook his head as he came over to Claire and Christopher. "Nope. He's lying. I looked in the basement and found his stash. Unless we catch him, he won't tell us anything."

"Let me try," Claire offered. Damon scowled at her.

"If he didn't tell you that he even took Elena's blood in the first place, he _definitely _won't tell you about him relapsing now. Come on." Damon jerked his head to the exit of the study. "He's bound to go down sometime."

"Okay," Claire said to Damon as he headed out of the room. With a worried glance to Christopher, Claire followed him, and her husband just stayed in the study, being that it wasn't his place to catch Stefan in such an act.

It wasn't long before Stefan came back down to the basement to get his blood, which Damon had shown to Claire earlier. Pints and pints of blood just sat in the fridge, just waiting for Stefan to drain each and every one. Having caught Stefan in the act, Damon stepped out from the shadows with Claire by his side.

"Well, well. He's a liar _and_ a thief." Stefan turned his head to see Claire and Damon standing there, waiting for him to explain himself. The younger vampire just stood by the fridge, the only light in the basement being the tiny one that was inside. "So…when were you going to share?"

"Go ahead." Stefan gestured to the blood. "Help yourself."

"No, no. I'm talking about the fact that you're a closet blood junkie."

Stefan shrugged. "So I'm drinking blood again. You're the one that shoved it on me. What's your problem?"

"You shoved it on him?" Claire asked Damon lowly. The vampire just shrugged and Claire stepped forward. "Whatever. Stefan, you can't be doing this. The whole town's on our asses. You don't handle human blood well—"

"I have it under control, Claire."

"Under control?" Damon repeated, scoffing. Claire's eyes softened as she tried to make her friend listen.

"Stefan, you robbed the _hospital_."

Again, the younger Salvatore just shrugged. "So what's your point?"

Damon and Claire both stepped forward to Stefan at the cooler. "Fine. Whatever, man," Damon said carelessly. "Drink up. Just remember we're trying to keep a low profile. Why don't you just walk up to Sheriff Forbes? Ask her to tap a _vein_?"

Stefan just laughed. "Have my actions negatively impacted you?" He took in a sharp breath playfully. "I can't imagine what that must feel like."

"Yeah, what's Elena think about the new…you?" Damon asked his brother skeptically, trying to get in his head about the situation. Stefan dropped the conversation for a moment, but then he shook his head.

"Nothing's changed. I'm still the same person."

"Clearly."

"Elena doesn't need to know anything yet."

"You're saying Elena doesn't even _know _that you're feeding on human blood?" Claire interjected, her eyes wide. Stefan looked over at her. "Stefan! You could attack her. Feed from her or…or _worse. _You've been off the human stuff for so long..." Her eyes softened as Stefan's green eyes poured into hers.

"If you're having trouble controlling it, Stefan—" Damon began, but was interrupted by his brother.

"I'm not having any trouble controlling it."

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Damon snapped, his voice now hard, cold, and angry. Stefan instantly shut up. "I know what it's like. That Jekyll and Hyde feeling. There's that switch, sometimes it goes off and you _snap_. Right now is not a good time for me to be worried about you _snapping_!"

Stefan rose his hands in front of Damon's face, shaking them to prove his point. "I know that it pains you—both of you," he added, his looking over at Claire, "to see this, but I'm fine. Okay?"

"Stefan," Claire began, but Stefan just repeated it again.

"I'm fine." Things went silent as Stefan grabbed a pint of blood from inside the cooler. "So please. Do me a favor, _mom_." The younger Salvatore's eyes turned to Claire and then to Damon. "_Dad_. Back the hell off."

Stefan shut the fridge angrily and stormed up the stairs of the basement, leaving Claire and Damon alone. A bubbling anger started to rise within Claire as she watched him leave, and she gritted down on her teeth.

"Did he just call me his _mother_? He did _not _just call me his _mother_!" She tried to go after Stefan, but Damon just gripped her shoulders and forced Claire back to the fridge, pinning the blonde between his body and the cooler.

"Hey. Hey, stop it." Claire growled, but Damon shook her to get her out of the anger spell she was in. "It's no use. We won't get through to them. Not tonight."

Claire had calmed by now, but the situation she was in completely escaped her mind before she realized exactly how it looked. The second Claire realized that she was in an uncomfortable position with the vampire she used to screw for kicks, she knocked his hands off her shoulders and angrily stormed upstairs, having had enough of the Salvatore brothers for one night.

* * *

"You don't understand, Damon." Claire groaned as she bounced down the stairs as fast as she could and slipped on her jacket. Damon followed closely behind, not in nearly as much of a hurry as she was. "I'm _already _late to help Carol teach the contestants the dances and I'm not going to sit here and keep going back and forth with you over Stefan's diet."

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Claire," Damon tried as she slipped her cell phone that was lying on the table in the foyer into her back pocket. "I want Stefan back on bunnies again. It's a real inconvenience when the town is riding our _asses_ trying to catch and kill another vampire."

Claire turned around at him sharply to find that Damon was closer than she would've liked. She didn't say anything, though; she merely sighed. "Then why were you the one who pushed him to drink it in the first place?"

"Because he needs to know how to _control _it!" The blonde rolled her eyes and turned on her heel to the door, earning Damon to brush it off. "Fine. Be oblivious, but be oblivious on your _own_."

As Damon turned to get himself a drink from the parlor, Claire opened the door so the bright sunlight hit her face—that was, what was left of it with John Gilbert's shadow on the Salvatore doorstep. Seeing him with his tight, smug grin and offensive stance put the fact that she was late to meet Carol in the back of her mind.

"Hey, partner," John greeted.

"John." Claire smiled sourly. "What a lovely surprise…" John brushed past her with a fake smile and walked into the foyer without an invitation from her. "Please…do come in."

"Don't mind if I do, Claire. Thank you." _Jackass, _Claire commented to herself before shutting the door with her on the inside. Damon, who disliked John's annoying presence as much or more than Claire did, wasted no time in playing games with the spiteful human.

"What do you want?" Damon asked shortly.

"Well, neither of you returned my calls," John accused. Claire crossed her arms and stepped forward as John looked around the boarding house and made his way into the parlor like he was at home.

"Most people take that as a hint," Damon replied.

"Yeah, I have this new app on my phone called 'block the jackass'. Works like a charm," she taunted. But John ignored the both of them, ready to engage in whatever war he needed to.

"Where do we start looking for vampires?" he asked loudly.

Damon sighed, tired of John's presence already. "Why the act, John? I mean, you obviously don't care about catching vampires; you're here talking to _us_."

John turned around to face Damon and Claire, who stood side-by-side and were ready to throw bullets if needed. "Actually, I care very much."

"What did Isobel say about that? I mean, considering that she _is _one," Damon shot.

The Gilbert looked caught, but not for a second did he even falter. "Isobel and I share a…mutual interest." Damon hummed, but he wasn't buying it. "The original Jonathan Gilbert had an invention that was stolen by a vampire. That vampire was then burned alive in Fell's Church, or so Jonathan thought. An invention that was lost forever." Again, Damon hummed, but he didn't break a sweat as he went down into the parlor to stand next to John during their testosterone fight. "But, then, the vampires weren't killed, were they? They were _trapped. _And now they're free, thanks to you two, which means the invention is retrievable."

Damon feigned interest in helping John. "Well, what is it?"

"The only thing that matters is that I want it back and you both are going to help me if you want to keep your secret safe." Claire stepped down into the parlor as John did a circle around Damon.

Damon and Claire looked at each other before the raven-haired vampire turned back to the demanding Gilbert. "I mean, w-why bring us into it John? I mean, I don't even know what you're talking about, much less who _has _it. Claire?"

"Absolutely clueless," the blonde agreed.

"Oh, come on." John turned around to face the two vampires at his disposal. "You were both around back then. You know who these people are, what they look like. He was friendly with a woman who turned out to be a vampire. Her name was Pearl. Does that ring a bell?"

Though both Claire and Damon obviously knew who Pearl was, neither one of them said anything. It would be a cold day in hell before Claire helped a vindictive vampire-hater get something he wanted. She kept her mouth shut and let Damon do the talking, and eventually, he did. The Salvatore just narrowed his eyes at John.

"I'm not playing anymore. Get out." Damon turned and gestured towards the door. "Get out."

"I beg your pardon?"

As Damon made his way to the door, he began to clarify, "You know, I only entertained this whole blackmail scheme thing of yours because I thought that you and Isobel could lead me to Katherine. But see, now I know you have _no _idea where Katherine is, because if you did, you would know that Katherine and Pearl were _best _friends." John fell completely silent, and this Damon took as an admission of shame. "See? You don't know everything, do you, John?"

John stepped forward and looked back and forth between Claire and Damon. "I'll tell the entire Council about the both of you."

"Go for it," Damon said quickly. "I'll kill every last one of them. Then I'll sever your hand, pull your ring off, and I'll kill you, too. Do you understand that?" he threatened. Claire straightened and came up behind John.

"But I called dibs on killing him." John turned around to see Claire behind him, putting him right between the two vampires. Her pout turned into a frown on a dime, "You piss me off, John, if I haven't made that clear enough. And the fact that you'd storm our household trying to blackmail us into doing your dirty work is _pathetic, _so do yourself a favor and get the _hell _out and never try to pull that again."

John stared at the pale-haired vampire, and when he looked back to Damon, he found that the other vampire had moved to open the door for John as a silent order to get the hell out of his house. Without speaking again, a head-held-high Jonathan Gilbert left the Salvatore household, leaving Claire and Damon to themselves.

Damon came over and stood by Claire, who was looking at the door as if remembering John's exit. Through clenched teeth, she hissed, "If John wants that invention, it must be pretty damn important. What do you think it does?"

Damon shook his head slightly. "I have no clue. But we better find it before he does."

* * *

A prideful Anna walked into the Founder's Hall, looking over the current residents of her hometown. Once inside, she took off her jacket and proceeded into the center of the party with one intent and one intent only: to get involved. Because Anna wanted to stay in Mystic Falls, she had to make sure that she kept up with the social events that were just as important as anything else. To live in Mystic Falls without being branded as suspicious to the secret council that hunted vampires, one had to make sure to show herself in daylight to rid all suspicion. The suspicion was rightfully placed, but the town was too behind on their vampire folklore to notice.

And she wasn't the only vampire at the event, either.

"In the running for Miss Mystic Falls?" Damon asked with a signature smirk as he made his way over to Anna with a glass of champagne in his hand. He was all cleaned up in a fresh tux; it was definitely a sight for sore eyes.

Anna averted hers. "Sometimes you have to wear uncomfortable heels to blend in." Damon hummed under his breath as he finally reached her and looked down at her shoes for good measure. When he didn't say anything, Anna took the liberty. "I remember this event from 1864. I was…_supposed_ to enter, before everything happened."

As Damon looked over the crowd of fake people in nice clothes, he sighed. "Ah. Nostalgia's a bitch."

Anna laughed, but she was far from amused. "If you're just gonna mock me, can you…move along, please?"

Taking this as his cue, Damon cut right to the chase. "John Gilbert thinks your mom stole an artifact from Jonathan senior…_senior _back in 1864."

The dark-haired female looked over at Damon. "What are you, his errand boy?" she joked.

Damon brushed past it. "I don't know what it is, but I don't want him to have it." Damon spoke through clenched teeth. Anna circled him, stopping when they were face-to-face.

"I could ask her," she agreed. "But, you know, you've made it pretty clear that you don't trust us so…why should I even bother?"

"Because you want to stay in Mystic Falls, and John Gilbert's in town, making that _impossible_," Damon proposed. Anna said nothing, so Damon continued in a stern voice. "Find out where it is. He leaves, you can buy a welcome mat."

Damon walked away after his proposal to Anna, and he knew that he left her watching. It was when Damon was far enough away from Anna that Christopher, inside the Founder's Hall, spotted Anna as she turned around and sighed. With a glass of sparkling wine in his hand, Christopher walked up to his old acquaintance.

"I think Damon forgot to ask nicely," Christopher commented as he reached Anna and gave her a genuine smile. Anna did the same in return. "He does that a lot."

"I've noticed," Anna agreed as she looked Christopher over in his crisp, expensive tux. "I see married life with Clarissa treats you well."

Christopher never lost the smile on his face; it just grew more teasing. "She goes by Claire now. It's more modern. We started thinking that I could go by Chris, but…" Christopher gestured to himself and scrunched his nose. "I don't think I look much like a 'Chris', do I?"

"It's all about opinion," Anna told him. Christopher took a sip out of his champagne glass with a smile as a silence came upon them. When he was done sipping the alcohol, he finally opened his mouth and spoke.

"Look, I know Damon can come off strong and demanding," Christopher reasoned, seriousness coming into his voice. "But John threatened all of us. We only just found out that he's after this artifact and unless we find some way to use it against him, he's just going to keep coming after us. _All _of us. He's putting this town on red alert."

Christopher and Anna stared at each other for a while before Anna sighed, responding much better to Christopher's attitude than Damon's. "I'll talk to my mother when I get home, but I can't guarantee she has it."

Christopher smiled. "Thank you, Anna. That's all we're asking for. Enjoy the party."

Without saying anything else to Anna, Christopher walked around her and over to Damon, who had rejoined the crowd of residents that were waiting for the pageant to begin. Once Anna was inside the Founder's Hall and out of hearing distance over the noise, Christopher joined Damon at one of the standing tables.

"Well?" Damon asked as Christopher came over to him. Christopher smiled.

"What was that term you used before?"

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Good cop, bad cop?"

"Good cop, bad cop!" Christopher exclaimed as he snapped his fingers. With a small laugh, he grabbed the champagne he had set on the table. "Well, it definitely works. Maybe next time we can switch it up. I'll be the bad cop, you can be—"

"Ah." Damon held up his hand to stop Christopher from continuing. The other vampire raised his eyebrow in question to what Damon was doing. Damon lowered his hand and shook his head at the Fell before him. "No. No, no. I don't play the good cop."

A smile twitched at Christopher's lips. "Come on, Damon. Everybody enjoys a good change in character once in a while." Damon rolled his eyes playfully and set his glass down on the table as he began to walk away. "Wait. Are you going to see Elena with Claire?" Damon nodded and watched as the Christopher's smirk grew. "See? What'd I tell you? Good cop."

Damon frowned. "It doesn't work that way." He shook his head. "I'll be back. See if you can find Stefan and, if you do, keep an eye on him until Claire and I come back down."

Without waiting for a response from Christopher, Damon went ahead and walked inside of the Founder's Hall, went up the winding staircase, and met Claire at the top of the stairs as she directed one of the contestants downstairs and told her to hurry. The blonde vampire was exhibiting _some _sense of responsibility as she tried to help Amber with her sudden panic attack by telling her to get a breath of air before coming back and getting changed. If Claire weren't a vampire, she'd be sweating from the pressure she had on the weight of her shoulders from Carol and everyone else breathing down her neck. But, since she _was _a vampire, she handled everything with grace and managed to keep all of the hairs on her head in their pinned places and also to keep her lavish black and beige dress from getting ruined. She tried to remember the last time she dressed up so often, but then she remembered that it was _Mystic Falls _she was living in now. If you didn't own a cocktail dress, you were run out of town.

Damon finally reached the top of the stairs, and when Claire saw him, she let out a long exhale. "Elena's in the dressing room. Alone. Where's Stefan?"

"Somewhere." Damon shrugged. Claire gave him a pointed look. "Relax. Christopher's trying to find him and when he does, he'll make sure to keep an eye on him. He won't be able to stop us."

"Good." Claire gestured to the door that led into the girls' changing room, and Damon took the lead on it. In one swift gesture, he opened the door to Elena as she jumped around with a blue dress still on its hanger in her hand.

"Hey," Elena said, a little breathless from the interruption. Damon just gave her a smile as he entered the room and Claire followed in, shutting the door. "Um…what's going on?"

"We need to talk," Damon warned her, his eyes dead serious. Elena held up the dress in her hand.

"Does it have to be right _now_."

"Unfortunately, _yes_," Claire breathed out, earning Elena's undivided attention as she could clearly see that something was wrong.

The human looked back and forth between the two vampires just as Damon opened his mouth and sighed. "Normally, I would have a _completely _different outlook on what we're about to tell you, but since it could _really _inconvenience me, I'll…squeal."

Elena just laughed nervously. "What are you talking about, Damon?"

"It's Stefan," Claire said solemnly, her eyes softening. "He's…still drinking human blood."

"What?" Elena gasped.

"Yeah." Damon shrugged. "A month ago, I would've rejoiced. But with the Council back on the alert, it is _not _a good time for Stefan to fly off the handle."

"I know he's been a little edgy lately, but he said that was normal." Elena scoffed. Claire shook her head.

"It's not normal, Elena. Damon and I found him with a fridge full of stolen blood from the hospital," she explained. A quivering Elena walked over to the couch in the changing room and set her dress down as she, herself, sat down on the couch with a hurt and shocked expression.

"Oh, my God," Elena whispered.

Damon didn't stop; he continued to try and make Elena realize how dangerous it was for Stefan to be flying off the handle. "He has no idea what normal _is_. His entire _existence _isn't normal. Normal to a vampire is drinking human blood. But he spent all this time fighting it when he should have been learning how to control it. And now it's controlling him instead."

"Damon and I are having a _disagreement _on what's best for Stefan and his dietary habits right now," Claire commented, throwing a glance at Damon for good measure. He shrugged. Claire turned back to Elena and shook her head again. "Regardless, it's not safe for any of us if this keeps happening right now."

A shell-shocked Elena let her voice turn out shaky, "I-I can't _believe _this! I mean, it's _Stefan _that we're talking about here."

Damon disagreed, "It's Stefan on human blood, Elena. He'll do anything, he'll say anything; because he's not gonna want to stop. Trust me."

Elena lowered her eyes, trying to let the information sink in, and while she did that, Claire sighed and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I've…got this."

Damon threw her a glance, and the both of them caught gazes for a moment before Damon gave a solemn nod, having done his job. The door clicked shut, and the room was silent for a minute or two before Elena got up from the couch and began to pace.

"Look, we can try to help him get back on the animal diet again—" Claire began, but she was interrupted by Elena, who rambled guiltily.

"This is all my fault! I'm the one who fed him the blood in the first place…"

Claire shook her head. "It's definitely not your fault, Elena, he just—" Again, she was interrupted, but this time, it wasn't by Elena. Instead, the door behind them opened to reveal a curious Stefan that had undoubtedly heard the tail end of their conversation.

"Uh…what's going on in here?" Stefan asked. Claire turned around and sighed at him.

"I'm just…telling Elena what she needed to be told." The blonde straightened, but Stefan wasn't giving in so easily. He scoffed and put his hands into his pockets with a shrug.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, but he knew damn well what Claire had told Elena about.

But when Elena blurted it out, there was no turning back. "I know about the blood, Stefan."

When the silence loomed over the couple in the changing room, Claire realized quickly that her job as a mediator was done and she had to get back to her current job of being a coordinator of the current event. "Uh…I have a few things to take care of before the pageant starts so…"

Did Claire feel bad about betraying Stefan? Sure. Did she know that it was for the best? Without a doubt. So maybe Stefan gave her a cold glance on her way out of the room, but she kept repeating to herself that it was for the best. She hated seeing Stefan suffer, and that's exactly what he did when he was on human blood—suffer. As much as she hated to admit it, Damon was right. He should've been learning to control his bloodthirst but ended up pushing it off for so long, every time he fell off the wagon, it took ten times the effort than the last to get back on it.

It all made Claire very afraid that she would have to fill in for Lexi's place. Lexi knew how to do things other vampires couldn't, and those were big shoes to fill. At the moment, she was thinking about going after Sheriff Forbes for killing Lexi, but she wasn't a complete monster. Descending the stairs, Claire shook out her wrists and took in a deep breath to calm herself down.

"I…think Stefan might've gone upstairs." Claire looked up to see Damon with a worried expression as he held an empty glass of champagne in his hand and swallowed. "Is everything okay?"

Since she was only about halfway down the winding stairs when Damon spoke to her, Claire continued down them before answering as she was at the last step. "No. I don't think it's _ever _going to be okay unless we fix this."

Damon sighed as they began to walk out to the outdoor dance floor where the contestants would soon come. He set the empty champagne glass in his hand down on a server's tray and let the server take it away.

"And by 'we' you mean me, since I was the one who got him onto the blood in the first place, right?"

Claire stopped Damon right on the dance floor, pulling back his arm. He turned to face her as they came to a stop, watching as she shook her head with serious eyes.

"No. By 'we', I mean _we." _They stared at each other, each of their blue orbs consuming the color of the other. "Damon, he means a lot to the both of us. It's the one thing we've had in common for our entire lives. He's my friend, he's your brother. We're doing this together. Let's just hope that telling Elena was the right thing to do."

Damon sighed. "The right thing…yes." He paused. "But the thing that'll make him stop feeding off of human blood…I'm not sure."

Claire shrugged. "Well, we had to try." A silence panned between them before Claire took in a sharp inhale and looked towards the bar. "Okay. I need a drink before Carol comes and finds me."

* * *

A thousand different emotions ran through Stefan's head by the time he found himself alone in one of the bathrooms on the second level of the Founder's Hall. Elena had found out that he was feeding off of human blood again, courtesy of his best friend and undoubtedly his brother, who couldn't keep a secret to save their own lives. Anger, rage, despair, hurt…it all blurred into one emotion: hunger. Stefan's breaths were short and full of fury, and the fact that he had confined himself in the small bathroom didn't help. Mumbling expletives to himself, Stefan leaned over the bathroom sink and felt the emotions bubble up inside of him. All the people he thought he could count on had betrayed him—hadn't believed in him.

In a flash of blind anger, Stefan ended up punching out the mirror in the small bathroom, and he watched as the shards of the glass fell into the sink and onto the bathroom floor. He groaned to himself, feeling as if he was on overdrive because of his burning throat, and when the door opened up, the rage got the better of him.

"Stefan," Christopher tried, but he saw Stefan's monstrous face on, indicating his growing, disastrous hunger. In a calmer voice, Christopher repeated, "Stefan? Stefan, it's me. Christopher. Relax. I'll go get Claire and—"

Stefan let out a breathy groan before he experienced another episode of blind rage, and he barely even felt it when he snapped Claire's husband's neck, rendering him temporarily dead. His body laid in front of the bathroom door, visible to all and any humans who walked by, but Stefan couldn't have that. Still facing the burning hunger in his throat, Stefan dragged Christopher's body into the bathroom and noticed that his elongated fangs and the veins under his eyes hadn't gone away. He was _hungry _and he wanted _food. _He wanted _vampire _food. Blood.

It was when Stefan finally crammed Christopher into the small bathroom when he heard a gasp behind him, and the sound of a beating human heart captured his attention immediately.

"Oh! God, sorry…" A pretty blonde high school student—Stefan recalled her as Amber, though her name didn't really matter—gasped when she saw Stefan's vampire face when he turned around. She backed away, afraid, but Stefan moved closer to her. Before she could scream, Stefan had her by the neck.

* * *

"Miss Tina Fell, escorted by Bartholomew Whitmore," Richard Lockwood announced, earning the Mystic Falls crowd to applause. Claire and Damon stood beside each other in the crowd, and they both clapped respectfully for the beautiful blonde in pink that joined arms with a boy in a tux and together walked outside onto the dance floor.

"Where's Stefan?" Claire asked as she peered over the crowd, something that was easy to do in the routinely high heels she was wearing. "And Christopher? I haven't seen either of them."

"I have no idea," Damon murmured, looking around himself. "But this is _not _good."

"Tell me about it. Elena's about to be called soon!"

Damon frowned. "I was sort of referring to the fact that Stefan's pissed and he's nowhere to be found…which means he got hungry."

"Miss Caroline Forbes and her escort, Jeffery Lockwood Hamilton." The crowd applauded again, as did Damon and Claire unconsciously as they watched Caroline in her floor-length green dress descend and join hands with her fill-in. Luckily, Claire had thought of a fail-proof system just in case anything went wrong with the pageant—a few secondary escorts had been taught the dance and were put in the back of the filing line for any emergency, and this was a flat-out emergency. Claire almost scoffed to herself. And Carol thought there wouldn't _be _an emergency.

Claire moved her way out of the crowd over to Richard, who was waiting to introduce Elena. Knowing that Stefan wasn't waiting for Elena at the bottom of the staircase, she told the Mayor the name of the next fill-in escort she had waiting at the bottom of the stairs: Dylan Maxwell. Richard nodded to her in understanding and Claire returned back to the crowd.

"You had a fail-safe pageant system?" Damon whispered to her as she returned to his side. Claire shrugged and listened while Elena was introduced.

"Doesn't everyone?" she proposed, causing Damon to roll his eyes at her without her knowledge. They clapped for Elena and the fill-in escort, and Claire could tell that Elena was shaking in her high heels. But it wasn't because she was nervous of the crowd, it was because she came to the same conclusion as Damon and Claire: Stefan was doing something that was going to screw all of them over.

But it would look too suspicious to leave the pageant—or for Elena to drop out. It was when Carol Lockwood came to her husband's side that Claire realized there was one contestant missing from the line-up.

"Amber," Claire whispered to Damon as they moved to the threshold of the Founder's Hall to watch the dance. They stood at the front, right in full view of the contestants. The two vampires didn't look at each other and tried to keep their mouths tight as can be so no one would know they were talking.

"What about her?"

"She's not in the line-up. Stefan took her, he had to."

"Damn it," Damon hissed while the dance started and happened right before their eyes. It was a blast from the past, back to 1864 when the dance was the trend. Neither one of them said a word after they realized what had happened, and they didn't have to. Elena looked over at them multiple times during her uncomfortable dance to silently tell the two vampires to not to anything before she gets done with the pageant, and Damon and Claire knew that they couldn't leave the crowd or else it'd be suspicious. So they stood there, just a few inches away, watching the pretty girls in pretty dresses dance with the handsome boys in handsome tuxes.

The prestigious event came to a close after the dance, when the contestants waited all of five minutes for the judges to come up with their answers. As they were all subjected upon the stage, the crowd applauded the mayor for his presence.

"Before I crown the winner, I'd like to offer a personal thank you to all these young ladies for their efforts to better our community," Richard started and prompted the crowd to clap for them. After the applause died down, Mayor Lockwood continued, "So…without further adieu, it is my honor to announce our very own Miss Mystic Falls…Miss Caroline Forbes!"

From within the crowd, Claire gave a look of approval and thought to herself how impressed she was that Caroline actually one. And, since Claire and Caroline were both cut from the same cloth, Claire found herself smiling at the glory she felt in watching a younger version of herself take a sash labeled Miss Mystic Falls. Damon had been called away by a few scruffy men in tuxes, and she was forced to wait for Elena to be done with the pageant alone.

"Claire." The blonde turned her head and expected to see Damon, but instead, she saw Christopher walking up to her with his hand cupped around his neck. She moved through an empty space in the crowd and walked over to him, but she pulled Christopher into a private room so that they were away from the commotion.

"What happened?" she asked him. "Where were you?"

"Stefan," Christopher said simply. "He snapped my neck. I woke up just _seconds _before the Sheriff and John Gilbert came to inspect the bathroom he shoved me in. But he was out of control, Claire. Have you seen him?"

Claire shook her head. "No. He ditched Elena at the line-up, I made one of the fill-ins escort her. God _damn _it, Stefan," she cursed to herself.

"Snapping his neck wasn't all he did," Damon came up to the threshold of the private room with an unsettling look upon his face. "He broke a mirror in the bathroom, there was blood on the shards and it was definitely human blood."

"The blood turns him into a completely different person," Christopher noted as Damon spotted Elena out of the corner of his eye and went to greet her as she looked around for them. Claire nodded.

"I told you, he doesn't handle the human stuff well. We need to stop him." Damon brought Elena into the room, and Claire and Christopher turned to them so they could all discuss the major problem they had on their hands.

"What is it? Did you find him?" Elena questioned.

"There were signs of struggle in the upstairs bathroom," Damon told her immediately. "There was blood."

"It's Amber," Claire said without a doubt. Elena turned her gaze to the blonde vampire. "I mean…it has to be. Otherwise, the girl chickened out and ran home, but I doubt she would do that, even if she had a panic attack."

Elena shook her head. "He…he wouldn't _hurt _her. He won't." No one bothered arguing with Elena, but they all knew she was wrong. Stefan was capable of things she wasn't aware of.

"Let's just find him. Okay?" Damon proposed, brushing past Elena's outburst. "Let's get your coat. Come on."

Once outside, it didn't take the group long to find Stefan—all they had to do was follow the sound of a shrill, mind-numbing scream from a high school teenager. Elena ran as fast as she could for being a human in a floor-length dress, but the rest of them had no problem keeping up.

"Stefan!" Elena shouted once they all reached him as he puled away from the blonde teenager and let her drop to the ground.

"Stefan," Damon started firmly. "Come on. Get control of it. Come on. It's okay. Come on. Breathe through it, man." Damon inched closer with every second, and while Damon tried to get Stefan to calm down, Claire and Christopher stayed back with Elena just in case—she was human, after all. Elena cringed at the sight of Stefan and his bloodstained lips and chin, revolting at the picture.

But when Damon tried to touch his brother, Stefan just flung him in the other direction with an animalistic groan. Elena gasped, and no one really had time to realize it, but Bonnie Bennett had now joined them, watching as Stefan unraveled before her eyes. Damon recoiled easily, but the two brothers faced each other head-on.

"Stefan, stop it!" Elena cried.

"Make sure she stays back," Claire hissed at Christopher before she inched closer to Stefan, causing him to turn to her. "You're better than this, Stefan! _Look _at me. I can help you. I can help you," she repeated, but Stefan looked at her with those same wild eyes. "Just listen—"

But he wouldn't listen. Stefan Salvatore was so beyond the point of listening that he attacked his best friend by the throat and threw her against the ground with another animalistic growl. Before Claire had time to react, Damon did, and he rushed over to Stefan and plucked his brother off of Claire before Claire could even have time to gasp for air against Stefan's hand. Just as Damon had, Claire flashed up from the ground in rebound and the two vampires faced the out-of-control one across the way, both sides braced for a fight.

But it didn't come to that. Instead, Stefan fell to the floor, grasping at the hairs on his head, groaning, and panting like he was experiencing a migraine. Everyone looked to Bonnie, who stepped closer and stared Stefan down with her eyes, and they all came to the same conclusion: she was the one doing it to him.

The witch closed her eyes, and in a few moment, she finished. Stefan stopped grunting in pain and he just looked around, lost. His gaze turned to Damon and Claire, and Damon held up his hands in surrender.

"It's okay," Damon whispered, but he could see the pain in his brother's eyes. "Stefan…"

The younger Salvatore gasped out of shame watching Elena, who stared at him open-mouthed in complete disbelief, and no one could stop him as he stumbled away into the forest with a thick stream of blood falling out of his mouth.

Because of the commotion, Damon and Claire called Sheriff Forbes outside after they'd compelled Amber into forgetting what happened and they spun a story to where Bonnie and Elena found Amber and had called Damon, Claire, and Christopher. Bonnie reluctantly went along with the story, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the whole thing disturbed her. Amber was going to be okay, but no one was sure about Stefan.

Claire had found Elena after Bonnie left in a hurry, leaving Elena to feel guilty about dragging her friend into everything. Because of the way Elena looked and the conversation that Claire didn't have to overhear to know how it went, the blonde vampire walked over to the human and sighed.

"You okay?" she asked.

Elena turned around at her and clutched her coat closer to her body before scoffing. "No." Claire nodded in understanding, and Elena bit down on her lip, holding in her misty eyes. "I've never…seen him like that before, Claire. He's scaring me…and I know that this isn't him. It can't be."

"The blood affects us all in different ways," Claire whispered low enough so none of the people around them could hear. "It changes us. And unfortunately for Stefan, it turns him into something dark. Something he absolutely despises and…well, without Lexi, I don't really know what to do," the vampire admitted.

Elena remembered Lexi; she remembered the lie Damon told Claire while they were on their Georgia road trip, and she tried to prevent herself from spilling the truth at that very moment. So, instead of going onto the topic of Lexi, Elena just sighed. "I think I do."

A few minutes later, Claire found Alaric swinging his keys and bouncing down from the Founder's Hall steps. When he saw the blonde in front of him, he stopped and gasped at the startle. "Jesus. Claire, you scared me."

"Sorry." But she didn't really care about apologies. Alaric waited for her to speak, and after looking down at the ground and back up, Claire finally found the will. "I need a favor."

* * *

Thankfully, Claire found Stefan up in his room, still sweaty and covered in the scent of fresh human blood. He was pacing back and forth and practically gnawing at his own hand in burning hunger and a mixture of other emotions, but he was home, at least. He wasn't out wrecking havoc on the entire town, spilling blood where it shouldn't be split.

As soon as Stefan realized her presence at his threshold, he called over his shoulder, "Get out of my room, Claire."

"That's _my_ line and it can only be said to Damon." Even though it wasn't a situation she wanted to laugh in, she needed to get a joke through before she crumbled into pieces watching her best friend fall apart.

Stefan turned around at her and looked at his friend with cold eyes. "I said get out."

"Stefan." In opposition to what he said, Claire stepped into the room with her fists clenched and her head pounding. "You've got to stop this. You're _scaring_ everyone. Christopher, Damon, Elena, and I…we're all _worried _for you. You're taking a plunge off the deep end."

"I'm not taking a plunge, Claire. This is who I am," the Salvatore growled under his breath. Claire frowned.

"That's not true. You and I both know, it's the blood that makes us this way. The monster that everyone believes we are is _inside _of us, but it doesn't have to come out. We can control it." She inched closer to Stefan, not afraid for herself but afraid for _him_. Stefan scoffed under his breath.

"It's not a monster that's inside of me, Claire, it's who I _really _am. The blood brings out the real me."

"The blood brings out the _monster _in you. The monster in all of us." Claire shook her head in disbelief. "It's happened to me, it's happened to Damon, and it's happened to you before, too. And though I may have stood by you the entire time, I didn't do it for the right reasons. But now, I am. Let me _fight_ this with you."

"There's nothing to fight!" Stefan shouted, his arm dragging across a stack of books that fell onto the floor in pure, white-hot rage. Claire stepped closer to him and watched as Stefan paced over and over again and held out a hand to her, trying to prevent her from stepping. "Don't come any closer. Stop!"

"You're my best friend, Stefan," Claire snapped at him, her eyes hardening. "You've been my friend for years and if you think I'm giving up on you right now you've got another thing coming." Her voice was just as hard and icy as Stefan's, causing him to back down and watch as she moved closer to him. "Because I don't care if you don't want my help, Stef. You're getting it. Even if I have to tie you down and do it for you."

"You don't have a _choice _in this, Clarissa! I don't have anything to _fight. _I've only been exposed to the real me," Stefan growled.

"You're full of bullshit, Stefan, and you know it!" Claire shouted.

"Stop!" Stefan boomed as he flashed the two back to the cabinet in his room, and he banged on it so hard that if it hadn't been made of solid wood, it would've crumbled underneath his fist. Claire didn't flinch one bit, but Stefan could see the pity in her eyes when she looked at him—the hurt. Silence hung for a long time as the two friends gazed at each other, and Claire tried not to let Stefan see the pain she felt watching him terrorize everything closest to him, including her.

"You're the only thing that's been constant in my life for years, Stefan," Claire whispered, shaking her head slowly. "You're all I have. I need you to stop this. _Please_."

All seriousness flooded into the two pairs of eyes that stared at each other, and Stefan found himself realizing how bad the situation had really become. Elena looked at him like he was a monster, Claire looked at him like she was losing her life, and Damon looked at him like he was disappointed beyond belief. Eventually, it all dawned on Stefan that he _was _terrorizing everyone. All for the blood.

"I'm so sorry," Stefan whispered, immediately conceding. Claire nodded to him, her eyes welling up, but it wasn't because Stefan was apologizing to her. It was for what she was about to do. The vervain dart in her hand burned a hole as if she was carrying a hot stone. Stefan folded into her, and Claire let him. "I'm so sorry, Clarissa. I really am."

"It's okay, Stefan. We're gonna get through this." Claire wrapped one of her arms around Stefan's neck and gave him a comforting hug. "We're gonna fight this and we're going to do it together, I promise you. Okay?"

"Okay…" Stefan whispered brokenly, and Claire found herself wavering as she hovered the vervain dart over his back. But the sight of a broken Stefan realizing all the pain that he'd caused was what made Claire finally stab the dart into her best friend's back, letting all of the poison into his body. Stefan whimpered as he crumbled, only being held upright by the will of Claire. Biting down on her lip, Claire moved Stefan's body so that he fell on the ground, and she watched his eyes flutter closed with a look of betrayal hiding beyond them.

When Claire looked up, she found Damon walking up to Stefan's door, ready to take his brother down to the cellar so they could start the process that Claire knew Lexi would approve of. Damon gave her a tight grimace as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sure you want to do this?"

Claire swallowed hard as she nodded. "Elena was right." Claire looked down at Stefan lying at her feet. "We _have _to do this."

"Claire." The blonde looked up at Stefan's brother and saw him nod to her slowly. "Just because Elena wants this doesn't mean we _have_ to."

Claire shook her head and Damon watched as her eyes glistened. "No, Damon. We do. We have to. Not for Elena, but…for him. It's the only way to fix all this."

She knew she was right, Damon knew she was right, and even Stefan knew she was right—not that he would come around to it so quickly. But Damon wasted no time in dragging Stefan's body to the Salvatore cellar, where they would all be forced to watch as Stefan deteriorated while they curved him back onto the animal diet. The heavy iron door shut with a squeal and Damon locked it, sealing his brother inside.

"There's no guarantee that this is going to work," Damon warned her. Claire stared at the cellar door before moving her gaze to Damon.

"I know. But I don't see any other way we can do it." She paused. "Do you?" Damon's silence was deafening, and it caused Claire to change the subject as she sucked in a breath and wiped her face with the palms of her hands. "Where's Christopher?"

"He's still out dropping Elena back home, I guess," Damon answered her and watched as Claire backed up to the cellar wall and nodded. He waited for her to start heading upstairs with him, but when he saw her sliding down the wall in front of the cellar, he realized that wasn't happening. "You're not coming?"

Claire shook her head wordlessly and tilted her head back against the wall. She waited for Damon to go, but she found herself surprised when Damon ended up sitting with his back to the wall her feet were positioned on, and she just gave him a look of understanding.

"For the record," Damon began slowly, trying to think his words before he said them, "Stefan's…not all you have, Claire."

The two vampires stared at each other for a long time before Claire's lips turned into a sad smile and she whispered, "I know."

* * *

**Here's just a little topic of conversation here: How did you all like that TVD promo that came out today? I'm conflicted but I'm really excited to see Season 6 air. What about the rest of you? **


	12. Blood Brothers

**Hey, everyone. Disruption in the updating schedule, I know. But these chapters are easier for me to write, and with school starting...holy shit do I need easier chapters to write. I've managed to get over the hump of Season 1 in this story so you should be expecting an update from me at this same time next Wednesday with the chapter I already wrote unless something goes direly wrong...or I just decide to be rude and not give you the chapter ;) Kidding, of course. ****Anyways, enjoy the chapter and review at the end please!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Blood Brothers**

**Mystic Falls, 1865**

_A weak, unstable Clarissa saw before her a blurry blotch of sunlight in her darkened vision that fried her skin for a fraction of a second. She didn't know how long she'd been kept in whatever hole Katherine Pierce had shoved her in; her days bled together because Emily Bennett only came to her at night for small doses of feedings. Though Clarissa had been fed from time to time, her throat burned with a hunger that she had no option to control._

_The night never was clear to her and Clarissa hadn't seen a single speck of sunlight since she'd turned into a monster by no will of her own. The last thing she remembered was Katherine burning her with just a splash of water. Her captor didn't explain it; all she knew was that she had become something evil. She had fed on a human being, had feasted on the rich substance that made up her friends and family. And because of her capture, they all thought she was dead._

"_Clarissa." The voice was nothing but an echo to Claire, who couldn't even move to save her life. Emily Bennett stood over the weak vampire before kneeling beside the blonde she considered to have been a friend before Katherine's intervention. Clarissa didn't make a sound. "Here."_

_Emily extended her wrist, pulling the sleeve of her shall up so that her skin was positioned at Clarissa's mouth. A whimper escaped the vampire as she felt her fangs withdraw, but Emily wasn't afraid. She had the power to put a stop to it at any time she wanted to. She may have owed Katherine her life, but that didn't mean she didn't recognize what she did was purely wrong._

_Clarissa drank from the witch, finding that the blood that coated her throat gave her life again. The color returned to her face—even though she was pale to begin with. Able to move, Clarissa tried to sit up and felt the hairs that had long fallen out of her pinned style brush the nape of her neck. She clutched Emily's wrist closer, now feeding animalistically, until finally, Emily hardened her eyes and Clarissa felt her mind go numb, causing her to drop Emily's wrist. The witch didn't prolong her torture, but it still hurt the vampire._

_But Clarissa King was no fool. Emily had fed her more blood than she'd consumed in the total time she'd been prisoner. "Thank you, Emily," Clarissa whispered._

"_Do not thank me yet, Miss King." Emily rose from her knees and grabbed her torch. "Damon and Stefan Salvatore are in trouble."_

"_What?" Claire said breathlessly, pulling herself up from the floor. "What trouble do you speak of?"_

_Emily waited for a long time before finally answering, "The trouble of turning, Miss King." Her voice was small and firm at the same time. "Damon and Stefan are in danger of becoming like you."_

* * *

"It's so hard to see him locked up like this," Elena commented under her breath as she peered over the small, barred window that peeked into the Salvatore's own personal basement cell. Stefan had been ignoring all of them for days, keeping his back turned to the cell window and never saying a word to any of the people who betrayed him. Damon stood against the wall adjacent to the door, his arms crossed.

"You're the one who locked him up."

"Actually," Claire intervened, earning Damon to flicker his eyes towards her, "_I_ locked him up."

"It was Elena's idea," Damon defended her. Claire scoffed.

"And you went through with it, too. You even helped," she retorted. The vampire shrugged carelessly.

"I couldn't have him running around _chewing_ on people while the town was looking for vampires, now could I?" Damon gave a sour smirk at her, and she shook her head tauntingly.

"Of course not. And it _definitely _had nothing to do with the fact that you actually…_care _about him, right?" Claire teased, but the humor was bitter. Her humor had been that way ever since she stabbed her best friend in the back and locked him up in a cell after joining forces with his evil brother. Maybe 'evil' was stretching it, but there was no doubt in her mind that it was what Stefan was thinking.

"Your thing, not mine." A disinterested Damon turned on his heel and went back up to the main level to be away from the two women that were driving him up a wall. Having Claire live with them was tolerable, but Elena was staying at the house day and night to be closer to Stefan. Damon had enough of all the estrogen in the household. When he was gone, Claire sighed to herself and Elena shook her head.

"I don't understand why he always pretends like he doesn't care about people," Elena voiced as she turned back to the window and observed Stefan. "You and I both know that he does."

Claire shrugged. "Damon would rather give up alcohol for the rest of his life than actually _admit _he cares about something other than himself. It's the way he's always been."

Elena peeked at the blonde from the side and pursed her lips. "You don't really believe that, do you?" she hinted skeptically. Claire stared at the wall Damon had been standing at for a while before moving her eyes over to Elena with a cocked eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean, Elena?"

The human shrugged innocently. "Nothing. Nothing, I just…" Elena trailed off, trying to find the right words. She turned back to the cell's window. "I just think that he cares more about some people than he lets on."

"Stefan's his brother." Claire straightened and turned to the cell window to look inside just like Elena. "And I think there'll always be a part of Damon that will care…even if he doesn't want to. I've seen it…_countless _times."

Elena peeked at the blonde vampire. "Stefan mentioned that you had a sister, once."

Claire nodded, but didn't look over at Elena. She just stared inside the cell. "I did. She's…long gone, by now. Ran away when she was thirteen. I tried looking for her after I turned, but I couldn't find her anywhere. It was like she fell off the grid."

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right." Claire turned away from the cell window and Elena did the same so that the two were facing each other. The vampire jerked her head towards the exit. "Come on. Let's give him some space. There's nothing we can do if he won't talk to us."

Elena nodded meekly, and the two women went upstairs shortly after that. Inside the cell, Stefan laid on his side, forced into solitude by his brother, his best friend, and his girlfriend. He wanted to hate them all for locking him up, but all the hatred went away. It was his own fault that he was inside; it was his own doing that landed him into a state of deep regret for everything that he'd done.

* * *

_Clarissa watched as her best friend slowly began to open his eyes to reveal his new world. She waited in anticipation, and didn't even flinch when Stefan jolted upright in his already sedentary position. He looked around with his sharpened new vision to find that he was out in the cool morning daylight by a pond in a small wooden shack._

"_Stefan?" Clarissa whispered, trying not to overwhelm his senses. Stefan looked back at her with crazed, confused eyes. She was only left to imagine what she must've looked like waking up to Katherine. Stefan didn't say a word, but instead looked down seeing the bloodstain on his shirt where he had been shot. He ripped the shirt open and found that the bullet wound he had felt pierce his skin was no longer visible. It was gone. Feeling something strange on Stefan's finger, the Salvatore looked down to find a clunky ring with an S branded on its crest._

_Stefan looked up at Clarissa with wide eyes. "Clarissa?" he whispered. She nodded and bit down on her lip, hating his confusion. "H-How are you…W-What happened to me?"_

"_Oh, Stefan…" Clarissa trailed off, swallowing hard. "I'm so sorry. I wish I could've helped, somehow. But by the time Emily told me, she had already found you and Damon. You had been…"_

"_Shot," Stefan whispered, putting the pieces together. "We had been…_shot_." Clarissa nodded, and Stefan took a second before he gestured at the ring on his finger. "What is this?"_

"_Katherine had me make that for you weeks ago," someone interrupted, and Clarissa and Stefan both turned to see Emily as she walked up the wooden stairs to the small shack._

"_She made one for me as well," Clarissa added on, flashing Stefan the lapis-lazuli ring that was on her right hand. She had only received the gift from Emily a few hours before. A sad smile appeared on her lips. "It allows us to see the sun."_

_Stefan stayed quiet for the longest time, and Clarissa could tell that he was going back and forth in his head on the matter. Eventually, he looked up at both women and asked, "Where am I?"_

"_The quarry. Just north of town. My brother and I brought you here last night. We found you dead in the woods." Emily replied._

"_Where's Damon?" Stefan inquired. Emily and Clarissa didn't say anything, but only looked over at the quarry. Stefan turned around to look in the direction they had to find that his brother was lying down by the water, basking in the sunlight with no shirt on his back. Stefan exhaled and turned around, trying to come to an understanding. "Am I a…am I a—?"_

"_Not yet. You're in transition," Emily answered before he finished his question._

"_But how? I…"_

"_Stefan, when you died, you had Katherine's blood in your system," Clarissa told him softly. Stefan shook his head rigorously, refusing to believe it._

"_No, I never—"_

"_She's been compelling you to drink it for weeks, Stefan," Emily urged, trying to get past the point of denial for Stefan. Eventually, the younger Salvatore realized that there was no point in arguing. He looked up at the two women. _

_"And Damon?"_

"_No compulsion was necessary. He…drank from her willingly."_

_Stefan exhaled sharply, trying to find some sense of hope that he could cling onto. But he remembered the point of his death…he remembered being shot and he knew that there was no going back now. He was ready to accept his fate, but now there appeared to be another option._

_The transitional vampire looked up at his best friend. "Clarissa? Are you…?"_

"_I am," she whispered. Stefan shook his head._

"_I thought you were dead." His eyes narrowed at her as he attempted to put it together. "We all…we all thought you were _dead_."_

"_I am," she repeated, nodding. "I am dead, Stefan. Katherine killed me, but before she did so, she slipped me some of her blood so I would turn. After I did, she locked me up for…" Clarissa turned to Emily and tried to recall the amount of time she had spent in her personal prison. "A week? Two weeks?"_

"_Three," Emily corrected her softly. Clarissa turned back to Stefan and repeated with a hard, thick swallow._

"_Three. Three weeks."_

_Stefan eyed her carefully, and the two friends looked at each other for the longest time, letting a silent understanding pass between the two of them through the hard time they were forced to endure. Stefan just shook his head and leaned forward, capturing her in a warm, long-awaited embrace. Claire buried her head into Stefan's shoulder and Stefan's fingertips reached out to gently graze the ends of her hair._

"_I'm sorry, Clarissa," he whispered, and it made it harder for her to keep herself in check. She nodded against him._

"_I know, Stefan."_

_After Stefan left Emily and Clarissa at the wooden shack to go speak with his brother, the witch and the vampire stayed side-by-side and watched as the brothers reconciled over their loss. Clarissa could've honestly rejoiced in Katherine's death, but she was too deeply saddened by the misfortune of her ex-best friend and her current best friend, not to mention the fact that Christopher Fell had been reported dead as a result of the battle. Clarissa realized shortly after learning this information that she was practically a window, even though she was dead, herself. In a way, it was almost like a fresh start, but she cared too much about her husband to think of it that way._

"_I'm sure you are aware of the process it will take for Stefan and Damon to become vampires," Emily whispered quietly to Clarissa so that the brothers wouldn't hear. Clarissa nodded._

"_They have to feed to turn."_

"_Yes. And, unlike you, Clarissa, they have a choice." Emily turned to face the blonde vampire. Clarissa looked at the witch and slowly began to come to the conclusion Emily was getting at. "And if they choose not to feed…"_

"_They'll perish," Clarissa whispered, her voice pained. "Both of them."_

"_While you remain immortal," Emily added. "I'm sorry."_

_Clarissa nodded weakly and looked over Emily's head to the quarry where the two brothers sat. She felt a painful stab in her chest when she slowly realized that—if they did not turn—she would be entirely alone for the rest of eternity._

* * *

Damon looked over the device Pearl had given to him in his hand with a confused expression. He had spent hours and hours trying to see if he could find anything that would point to the purpose, but at this point, he believed it was just a piece of crap that did nothing.

Coming from the basement, Elena and Claire rushed into the study back on the main level of the boarding house. While Claire went to Christopher, who was sitting on the armchair, Elena exhaled a sigh and went over to her bag. She looked up to see Damon with the invention, and she raised her own eyebrow at it.

"Did you ever figure out what that is?"

"Nope. Whatever it is, it doesn't _work_," Damon replied.

"And you're sure Pearl didn't say _anything _else about it?" Christopher asked from the lounger, eyeing the invention himself. In the tomb, he wasn't anywhere _near _the invention, so he was just as clueless as everyone else.

"She thought she was stealing his vampire compass, but it was a pocket watch," Damon explained. He sighed. "That Jonathan Gilbert was a _crazy _scientist."

Claire scoffed. "Tell me about it. Didn't he get us a hot plate or something for our wedding? I mean, it _obviously _wasn't a hot plate since they weren't invented back then, but…the second we turned that thing on, it went up in flames."

Christopher looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "I thought he was the one who got us the bottle of scotch."

"That was his son," Claire pointed out. "And it was open and only had half of it left."

"Jonathan Gilbert had a son?" Elena asked as she folded a pair of jeans and put them back into her bag. Damon turned around and answered before the couple could get to it first.

"Yep. He was a drunk. Rude, too. Speaking of Jonathan Gilbert, have you spoken to your uncle lately?" Damon asked the human, still skeptical of the pushy current John Gilbert. Elena shook her head.

"I've been avoiding him, actually," she admitted. "That, and I've been _here_ most nights."

"Are you staying tonight, too?" Claire asked, chiming in. Elena looked over at her as she stuffed her bag.

"Um…I was hoping to. Is it a problem?"

Claire opened her mouth to say something, but Damon spoke first. "Yes. You're a _complete_ nuisance."

Elena scoffed and slung her bag over her shoulder. "See you later," she said to them all before taking off to head to school. Damon kept silent while Claire and Christopher both chorused a goodbye to her and they all shortly heard the front door close as the human left.

At least one person was in the house at all times since Damon neglected feeding Stefan vervain on the hopes that his brother would understand how important it was to feed. None of the vampires had much to do with all the babysitting going around, but it was starting to get complicated when Damon came back from the basement and reported his recent conversation with Stefan.

"Yeah…he refuses to feed," Damon told Claire with a sigh. She crossed her arms at him.

"What the hell do you mean, 'he refuses to feed'? He _has _to feed, or he'll desiccate."

"I think he knows that, Claire." Damon began walking down the hall. "I also think that he doesn't care. He's kicked it into high-gear with the whole brooding thing."

"Why? The human blood should be out of his system already. All he has to do is feed! I went out and got the blood this morning. What's his problem?" Claire pushed, and Damon just shrugged.

"I don't know. Why don't you go ask him?" Suddenly, Damon's phone began to ring in his pocket, giving him a way out of the conversation. Immediately, he pulled it out and answered the call. "Hello?"

"_Hey, it's Alaric Saltzman."_

Claire, who had been walking side-by-side with Damon, came to a halt with Damon as they both stared at each other with confused gazes. Alaric…calling _him_? Damon resumed walking as he barked into the phone, "Before I hang up, how'd you get this number?"

"_Ah, it's a mystery. Listen, I've…uh…been doing some digging on Elena's uncle. You interested?"_

"What kind of digging?" Damon eyed Claire and they both listened to Alaric as he tried to help them. But it was odd; the fact that a vampire-hunting History teacher was calling them with information that could help. They practically had to beg for it last time.

"_I've got an old friend from Duke who studied criminology when we were there together. Let's…just say he's become a very proficient digger."_

"Did he find anything?"

"_Well, I had him run a track on John's cell records. He was getting a call from a number—the same number that Elena dialed to get Isobel and then the number was disconnected."_

Damon shrugged. "Isobel knows John. Whatever. We knew that."

"_Right. Well, after that, he started getting calls from a new number and I had my friend run a geotrack."_

Claire narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose. "Who _is_ this guy? CIA or something?" she hissed. Damon gave her a look of agreement as he kept listening to Alaric on the other side of the phone.

"_Got the address. It's…it's an apartment in Grove Hill."_

"Isobel's in Grove Hill?" Damon repeated.

"_I don't know. I thought we could take a look and see what we find."_

"Perfect. Give me the address."

"_Oh, so you and Claire can go without me? No. I don't think so." _Alaric scoffed. Damon didn't bother denying it; instead, he defended it.

"You tried to kill me! I'm not going with you."

"_Yeah, well you did kill me!" _Alaric retorted. As Damon dealt with Alaric, Claire felt her phone start to vibrate in her pocket, and she pulled it out to find Elena's contact information on the screen. Without hesitation, she answered the call and stepped away from Damon a few feet so that she could talk to Elena.

"Hey, Elena."

"_Hey, Claire. I'm just grabbing some clothes, and then I'll be right over. How's Stefan?"_

When Claire turned around to face Damon, she saw him roll his eyes at the phone. "Fine. You drive. Pick us up in an hour." Quickly, he ended the call and gestured to Claire's phone, a silent question as to who it was.

"Elena," Claire mouthed before finally speaking into the phone to the human, "Um…Stefan's not doing too well. Damon says he refuses to eat the blood I got for him this morning."

"_He has to eat!" _Elena complained. _"What's his favorite…kind of…um…?"_

Damon rolled his eyes as he listened to the cautious Elena on the other side of the phone. "Tell her it's puppy blood. She'll love that."

Claire scowled at Damon before responding to Elena using her own words and not the sick words of the elder Salvatore's. "I don't think it's his preference that's getting in the way, Elena. I'll try to see if I can talk to him about it when I go down to check on him, okay?"

Elena sighed. _"Okay. Thanks. I'll see you in a bit."_

"Yep." Claire hung up the phone and slipped it in her pocket before she turned to Damon with crossed arms. He had moved to the couch now, his feet propped up on the coffee table in the middle of all the couches. "Puppy blood? Really?"

Damon smirked. "Little Golden Retriever puppies with cute, fluffy ears…"

Claire frowned at him and didn't say a word before she turned on her heel to go down to see Stefan and get him to drink the blood. Damon watched as she left, and his smile slowly began to fade.

* * *

"_I bet Jonathan Gilbert has told Father by now. Wonder how he took the news that we're dead," Stefan wondered aloud as he and Damon sat by the water, stripped of their shirts with a bucket of water between them so they could wash up._

"_As if he cares," Damon responded. Stefan turned to look at him. "He betrayed us."_

"_He thought he was protecting us, Damon. He thought he was protecting this town."_

_Instead of replying, Damon just drew in a sharp breath. "God. The sun hurts my eyes."_

"_It's a part of it." The brothers looked at each other. "The muscle aches, the sick feeling—Clarissa said she never got to experience it because Katherine made her turn right after she'd woken up, but Emily says that it's our bodies pushing us to feed. To complete the transition."_

"_That's not gonna happen." Damon hastily scrubbed at his skin, trying to clean up. Stefan squinted in the sunlight._

"_Is that your choice, then? To die instead?"_

"_Isn't it yours?" Stefan was silent. "This was all to be with Katherine! But she's gone. I want it over."_

"_So that's it, then?" a voice sounded behind them, and Stefan and Damon turned to see Clarissa walk out with the sun behind her head, illuminating her golden hair. Both brothers watched as she walked forward with a melancholic expression. "You both have decided?"_

_Damon sat still, not realizing that he hadn't thought his reasoning all the way through. Katherine may not be alive, but Clarissa was a vampire, and she would be for the rest of eternity whether she wanted it or not. Stefan swallowed._

"_Damon's right, Clarissa." Both brothers exchanged a glance. "We can't complete the transition."_

_The blonde nodded and walked up to them. Stefan moved the water bucket to his side so that she had a place to sit, and with a sigh, she sat down on the soft grass in front of the lake between both brothers. "I understand completely. I would've chosen the same thing."_

"_Why'd she do it?" Damon asked suddenly, earning Clarissa's attention. She turned to look at him, her blue eyes growing brighter in the midday sun. "Turn you, that is. Do you know?"_

_There was a reason—a reason both Clarissa and Damon were both thinking of, but couldn't say aloud. Instead, Clarissa shook her head. "All she told me was that I needed to pay for what I've done. That I deserved a greater punishment than death."_

"_You don't have to keep going, Clarissa," Stefan said softly, making her turn to him. "We could all die. Together."_

"_I'm already a vampire, Stefan. I've already completed the transition. There is no dying for me."_

"_Clarissa." Damon caught her attention again. "I don't think that's what he meant."_

_Damon and Clarissa stared at each other, silently exchanging words before Clarissa turned her head to face Stefan and did the same thing. No actual words were spoken, but there had been enough said to last forever. Stefan had offered, bluntly, to kill her before he died, himself._

_Her eyes turned to the quarry, and she just took in a deep breath._

* * *

"I heard someone's got a bad case of anorexia," Claire accused Stefan as she eyed the brooding vampire through the small window of the cell. Stefan kept his head hung and his eyes locked on the animal blood in the water bottle that had been knocked on the floor by his brother. Claire was silent before she began again with a sigh, "You need to feed, Stefan." He shook his head weakly. "Come on. You won't be able to survive without it."

"I don't want to survive," Stefan said abruptly, finally looking up to meet Claire's gaze. She stopped to think for a second, and her eyes narrowed as she listened to his words on repeat in her head.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"I'm sorry, Claire. No more."

"Like hell you're sorry!" Claire snapped, turning from understanding to angry in a mere flash of an instant. "You wouldn't be doing this if you were sorry! Drink the damn blood, Stefan!"

"After what I've done, it has to end. I just want it _over_."

"All you did was feed off of some ditzy blonde at a high school…_debutant _pageant!" Claire defended him with a scoff. "We've all moved past it; you can move on now, too. You don't have to go starving yourself!"

"It's not about the girl."

"Then what is it about?"

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Stefan returned to his original position, hanging his head and recoiling into himself. Claire shook her head at him.

"Stefan, I didn't put you in here because you're the worst person on the planet or something, I put you in here because I was _concerned _about you and I wanted you to get better. You starving yourself isn't helping anyone." Stefan didn't answer. "Stefan, please. Don't _do_ this to yourself. It's not worth the torture." No answer. "Stefan?"

But it was hopeless. Stefan had stopped talking to her like he had so many times before, and Claire was forced to realize that he wasn't going to talk to her anymore. Angrily, she stormed back upstairs, where Elena was waiting for her upon her return from the basement. Everyone, including her husband, was in the study, so she took it as opportunity to tell them what happened with Stefan.

"You know, he's just being dramatic," Damon tried. "He's not going to starve himself."

"Then why would he say that?" Elena pushed. She was taking the news of Stefan's hurtful dialogue personally, coming to a realization that this was more serious than ever. Damon leaned over the back of the couch and shrugged.

"He feels bad about hurting that girl. It's very typical Stefan martyr stuff. It will pass."

Claire, who was pacing by the unlit fireplace, crossed her arms at him. "No, Damon. This was serious. _He _was serious. He wasn't upset about the girl; he was upset about something _else_. He was in so much…_pain_."

Damon scoffed. "Yeah. Well, that will pass, too, once he _eats_."

Claire stopped pacing to face him with a frown. "You know I didn't mean _physical _pain."

Damon kept his eyes locked with hers. "I know what you meant."

"Claire." Christopher sighed and got up from the lounger he was sitting on to walk over to his wife at the fireplace. "Just relax. You told me that he's been through this before with Lexi. He'll get over it, and he'll feed again. Besides, the blood's still in the cell…he won't be able to resist it for long. Even if he doesn't want to take it, he'll have to. His body won't let him desiccate if it doesn't have to…trust me."

His hand reached out and brushed the underside of her chin before sliding down to her arm in a comforting squeeze. Claire nodded, trying to calm herself down before she went crazy thinking about how long Stefan was going to be like this. From the other lounger, Elena's eyes cut over to Damon, who was staring at Claire and Christopher with a displeased expression written all over his face. When Damon looked over at her, Elena quickly tore her eyes and pretended like she wasn't watching him. The elder Salvatore sighed.

"Okay…look, Elena, are you going to be okay here if I have to run out? I have to go to an errand with the _teacher_."

"The teacher?" Elena repeated with a laugh. "Alaric? Are you two friends now?"

"I don't have any friends, Elena," Damon pointed out as he walked over to get his jacket. Elena scoffed.

"Right."

"I thought we were going together on this," Claire protested as she watched Damon slip his jacket on. He didn't look up at her. "What, now you're cutting me out of the plan?"

"I just thought you wanted to stay here with Stefan, that's all." Damon sighed, turning around at her. Claire shook her head.

"If I stay here with Stefan, I'm going to end up _forcing _that blood down his throat…which I really don't want to do because it'll be messy and he'll hate me forever." She shuddered at the thought of it, and her eyes flickered to Elena. "Are you okay alone?"

"I could stay behind to make sure nothing happens to her," Christopher offered. Elena shook her head, displeased at being treated like she needed a babysitter.

"No. No, I'll be fine. You all can go," she assured them. The vampires stared at her, and she just sighed. "Look, if you were really all that worried, you wouldn't be leaving. I can handle it."

A long silence passed before Damon shrugged. "Okay. We won't be long." Looking up at Claire and Christopher, he jerked his head to the door. "Come on."

After parting with Elena, the two vampires followed Damon outside the house, where they met Alaric at his car and drove to Grove Hill. After much navigation to the location Alaric had gotten from the cell phone, they finally ended up at an apartment that looked like all the other ones around it.

All four of them walked up the driveway, and Alaric announced, "This is the one here. Records show it was paid three months in advance."

"This is where it gets tricky," Damon sighed as they all walked up to the doorstep. "I may or may not be able to get in."

As Damon reached forward and knocked on the door, Alaric nodded. "Yeah, how does that work? You always have to be invited in?"

"By the owner or person of entitlement," Damon agreed. "Short-term rentals and hotels are…a bit of a gray area. You kind of gotta play it by year."

"Sheratons," Claire pointed out behind Alaric. "Those are the ones that get you."

Damon stepped forward to the door, and Alaric scoffed. "Could we…not kill anyone tonight, please?"

"You mean, you just brought me along for my company?" Damon quipped as he twisted the lock so that it broke in his hand. He let Alaric cross the threshold first, and Claire followed up at the threshold right behind the History teacher. With a look inside, she tested her hand across the doorway and found that it easily passed through, so she gave a look of approval and stepped across the doorframe.

"It doesn't look like anyone's home," Alaric whispered.

"No permanent resident, apparently," Damon noted. The four walked through the hallway leading into the small apartment, and they all branched off. Damon went to the kitchen, Alaric went to the small eating area, and Claire and Christopher walked into what seemed to be the living room. Damon opened the fridge in the kitchen, and when he saw what was inside, he knew it couldn't be good. "Uh…we have company."

The second Damon mentioned it, someone flew out and attacked Alaric in full-on vampire mode. Claire immediately flashed over to the teacher and pulled the vampire off of him without blinking, but the vampire recoiled fast at full attack mode. Damon only had to walk forward to intervene, pushing the vampire down again at a brute force without effort.

"I know you," Damon said suddenly, looking down at the vampire. Claire tilted her head as well, as if coming to the same realization. From beside the knocked-down vampire, Christopher widened his eyes.

"Henry?"

Henry looked over at Christopher and did the same. "Christopher?" He looked at Damon and Claire next. "Damon? Clarissa?"

"You were in the tomb," Damon stated. Henry nodded.

"Yes, sir." He looked between all three vampires. "What are you doing here?"

* * *

_Clarissa threw a rock into the quarry and watched as it skipped ten times as fast as it had back when she was a human. One of her new abilities as a vampire was strength, and she hadn't grown quite accustomed to it yet. Throwing the stones was what allowed her to try and control said strength, but the stones still skipped father than they'd ever skipped before. Stefan had gone on a walk to clear his head, and Clarissa was sure Damon was off sleeping or something like that. This, however, was what relaxed her since she had nothing else to do._

_Stefan's proposition was enticing, she had to admit it. Dying again would give her what she wanted—to be at peace. But now that she had a chance to live another life, she couldn't help but wonder if she should. She could start over, become someone new. Maybe even find her sister at last. Having the choice of whether or not to die was a burden that no one wanted, because there was just too much to give up. It was a life—vampire, transitional vampire, or human. As a vampire, a person might be dead, but they were still…alive._

"_How could you?"_

_Clarissa turned around just as she threw another stone, and the sound of the stone skipping roughly echoed behind her. She turned to face Damon with a peeved expression upon his features, his hands clenched into fists. Clarissa shook her head._

"_I—"_

"_Three weeks." Damon stepped forward. "I went _three _weeks thinking that you were dead when I _saw _you the night your parents put your grave in the ground."_

_Clarissa swallowed and dropped her eyes. "Oh. Right."_

"_You _compelled _me to forget that you were there," he hissed._

"_I didn't know what else I could do," she defended herself with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "I _am _dead, Damon. It all would've gotten complicated if you thought I wasn't dead. Katherine made sure that everyone knew. If I hadn't compelled you, she would've known I escaped. At the time, that mattered."_

"_You still shouldn't have done it."_

"_I had no choice!" she returned angrily, spinning around and throwing all the stones she had collected in her hand with a flash of anger that came over her. She stayed turned around, her chest rising and falling out of anger. She remembered doing it and how it wrecked her to watch as all remembrance of her appearance had drained from Damon's eyes, but she did have no choice. She had escaped from Katherine during the night and knew that if Katherine had turned her over having some unimportant affiliation with Damon that she would do much worse if Damon knew she was still alive._

_When Clarissa turned around, she found that she ended up turning to face Damon just a few feet away from her, closer than before. Things were quiet until he finally said something._

"_I could turn," he said softly. She waited for him to clarify. "If you want me to, I'll do it. Just tell me."_

"_I can't ask that of you." Clarissa scoffed. "And I think it's unfair of you to ask that of me."_

"_Do you really want to die, Clarissa? Die with both of us like Stefan suggested?"_

"_I want peace," Clarissa told him, her throat thick. "I spent the last three weeks fighting for my life against a woman that hated me out of pure jealousy. I came out victorious to find that my husband died trying to burn her in a church." Damon winced. "He knew, you know. About my transformation. Katherine made me tell him, but...then she compelled him to forget."_

"_Did you want him to forget__?" Damon asked softly. Clarissa shook her head._

"_Of course not. But Katherine thought that, when I told him, he would think that I was a monster. Some kind of demon." She swallowed again. "She was wrong. He didn't think I was a monster. He accepted it."_

"_So it was just me, then?" Damon barked, his eyes cold and hard. "It was only me you wanted to forget the fact that you were alive?"_

"_If that's how you look at it." She nodded. Damon frowned at her._

"_You kissed me again."_

"_I know. It was wrong…and selfish," she added. They stared at each other across the grass until she let a sad smile on her face. "But it's time to just accept the situation as it is, Damon. We'll never work, even if it were possible to…which it's not, because I'm not ready, and neither are you."_

"_So you're saying…?" Damon trailed off, trying to come to a conclusion. Clarissa inhaled._

"_I'm saying that you broke a vase in my house and that I retaliated by breaking your father's drinking glass." Another silence ensued, passing between them. "And it's time to just accept that as the truth and let the rest go."_

_She nodded as if reassuring them both, but Damon just stared without saying a word._

* * *

"So," Henry began as he drained a blood bag into a glass to make it more presentable, "How do you know John Gilbert?"

"Well, I've…known him for years. He's a good friend," Damon lied. Claire bit down on her tongue to keep from telling the painful truth that John Gilbert was just an annoying parasite. "How do you know him?"

"I met him right after I got out of the tomb," Henry told them. "He's been helping me out."

"Helping you out how?" Alaric asked. Henry put the glass of blood in front of Damon, who had been the last to receive the drink.

"Adapting. It's a whole new world. Cars, computers, 'match dot com'. There's so much to learn! Right, Christopher?" Henry asked, gesturing towards him. His eyes flickered to Claire. "Well…I guess 'match dot com' probably wasn't relevant to you, anyway."

"Yeah, it…really is a challenge." Christopher cleared his throat and leaned forward. "So what about this place? Is John the one who got it for you?"

Henry nodded as he pulled another blood bag out of the fridge for himself. As he did so, Alaric asked, "So, do you live here alone, or is there…uh…someone else here?"

Damon quickly covered Alaric's hasty question, "That's my friend's very…_passive-aggressive _way of asking, uh, do you know a woman named Isobel?"

Henry shook his head. "Uh, no. No, I don't know an Isobel. I know John. He's my only real friend." Claire silently rolled her eyes. "He really showed me the ropes—how to use a microwave, separate my whites."

"What else do you do for him?" Alaric asked.

"I help keep an eye on things—you know, with the others."

"The others?" Claire repeated, cocking an eyebrow. Henry nodded.

"From the tomb. I mean, obviously not Christopher since he's not a big threat or anything being with you and all," he amended, "but some of them are still pissed at the Founding Families for trying to burn them alive. I'm cool, but those tomb boys, they want revenge."

"What does John want with them?" Alaric pushed

"He's just keeping an eye on them, you know? Trying to make sure they stay out of trouble."

Damon laughed. "Well, that's John. He's such a do-gooder."

"Saint John," Claire agreed with a bitter smile. Suddenly, a phone started ringing, and Henry reached in his pocket to pull out a small cell phone with a green light on top indicating the incoming call.

"That's John now," he laughed at the irony. Damon immediately rose from his seat.

"Oh! Hey…let me talk to him." He grabbed the phone out of Henry's hand with an agreement from Henry, and the smiling tomb vampire just waited for Damon to answer the call. Claire and Christopher both stood up from their chairs and walked around to surround Henry, whose smile was falling when Damon didn't pick up the phone.

"Are you gonna answer that?" Henry asked.

"Am I gonna…answer that?" Damon knotted his eyebrows, looking at his companions. Alaric shook his head subtly behind Henry, and Damon's eyes flickered to Claire, who just gave him a look of understanding. Henry looked at all the vampires.

"What's…going on?"

The tomb vampire might've been stupid, but he wasn't _that _stupid. After a second of silence, he finally realized that he was being ambushed, and he began to go into full attack mode. Unfortunately for him, by the time he tried to lunge at Alaric with his demonic face breaking through, Claire had already come up behind him and restrained him so that he couldn't get anywhere.

"Clarissa, don't!" Christopher protested, but it was too late. Alaric tossed Damon the wooden stake, and the vampire caught it halfway in the air and shoved it into Henry's heart faster than he could blink. Claire and Damon watched as the vampire in their grasp turned to a greyish color blotched with exposed veins. Slowly, Claire placed Henry down on the ground and dusted out her hands. Silence overwhelmed the group as they stared down at Henry's dead body and no one even realized that there had been a protest until Christopher spoke again.

"You didn't have to _kill_ him!"

Claire and Damon both looked up simultaneously, finding as the bronze-haired vampire stood before them with disappointment in his eyes at the dead body on the floor. Claire thought, for a moment, that he wasn't serious, but she saw the sincerity when he scoffed and turned down the hallway towards the front door. She suddenly felt very _ashamed _of herself—something that she hadn't felt in a long, _long _time. Killing people had been a part of her nature, something she actually _enjoyed _doing from time to time. Sure, she was more humane than most vampires, but the thought really never did cross her mind to leave Henry alive. That's what shamed her.

Claire watched as the front door slammed, and she turned to look at Damon and Alaric, who looked like they were standing awkwardly in the middle of a fight…which, in a sense, they were. Something about it made Claire a little pissed, so she ended up grumbling, "See if you can find anything. We'll be outside."

Damon and Alaric nodded, and Claire just stepped over Henry's body and went out to find Christopher while they finished up inside. Luckily for her, he had only gone down the driveway when she stepped outside and closed the door shut behind her.

Obviously, he heard her—like all vampires would've been able to. "Is that normal to you? Killing people who never do anything wrong?"

"He was working for John," Claire defended as she walked up to him. "You _know_ that. He was loyal to him."

"And I spent one hundred years with him _trapped _underground, Clarissa. He would've been loyal to _me _if I asked. It could've been entirely avoided." Claire bit down on her tongue, unwilling to argue with anyone else. She'd had enough excitement for one day—correction, the entire _year_.

"Fine, you're right. It could've." She let out a breath, trying to calm herself down. The day only got worse by the hour. "Look, Damon and Alaric are inside looking through Henry's things. Once they're done, we'll leave."

Christopher could see the annoyance in her eyes, and he stepped forward. "Look, I didn't mean—"

"You know what? It's been a really, _really _tough night, Christopher. Okay? I have Stefan to worry about, Damon to worry about, and Elena to worry about. I don't _need _another thing to stress over."

The couple stared at each other in utter silence, neither of them willing to say what was really on their minds. Christopher looked like he was about to say something, but he decided against it and just turned on his heel to go back to the car. As Claire watched him climb inside Alaric's unlocked car, she thought of something that she knew was on both of their minds—there was some part of her husband that looked at her like she was still an innocent human girl. But he was _wrong._

She wasn't innocent, and she definitely wasn't human anymore. Death had changed her, like it had everyone else in their predicament.

* * *

When Claire returned home, Elena was sitting on the couch in the study writing in her diary with her knees against her chest. The fireplace was glowing brightly, adding a natural illumination to the room as well as warmth. Christopher had gone off somewhere and Damon was talking to Alaric out front. When Elena saw that Claire entered the study, she turned her head and gave a soft smile "Hey, Claire."

"Hey, Elena." Claire walked up behind the couch and uncapped the crystal container filled with bourbon. She grabbed a glass on the tray and poured herself a much-needed drink before asking, "How's Stefan? Did he eat?"

"Not yet," Elena murmured in a sad tone. Claire exhaled heavily while downing a sip of the bourbon in her hand, and when she was thinking over what she was going to say next, Damon interrupted by walking into the room and groaning.

"God. You're still here?" he mocked dramatically. Elena played along, looking up at him with a sour smile.

"Were you expecting anything else?"

"Nope." Damon walked around the couch to Claire and grabbed a glass of his own to pour some bourbon into. Elena looked up at the two behind the couch, sipping out of their glasses like they were synchronized. Brushing it off, she coughed.

"So…how was the 'errand'?"

"Futile," Damon responded. "Although, I think I witnessed the teacher having an existential crisis."

"You did?" Elena asked at the same time Claire raised an eyebrow and asked the same thing, apparently having missed all the fun. Damon looked back and forth between the two of them and nodded.

"Uh huh. Anyways, it's not important." He looked over at Elena. "Has Stefan eaten yet?"

Elena held her head proudly. "I thought you didn't care."

"Chalk it up to morbid curiosity," Damon lied smoothly, shrugging at her. Elena just smiled and ducked her head into her diary, but nodded.

"I think he's getting there. But he's got a lot of guilt that he has to deal with. And it doesn't help that you've spent the last 145 years _punishing _him for Katherine getting caught," Elena commented snidely.

"You know…that actually makes sense. Stefan doesn't feel bad about Amber, he feels bad because of what he did back in 1864 that turned you both into vampires…that's what he meant," Claire realized, trying to figure out ways to solve the problem in her head. Damon glanced up at her and cocked an eyebrow defensively.

"So you're saying that this is my fault, too?"

Snapping out of thought, Claire looked over at Damon. "Well…it's not technically _your _fault, Damon…but you _have_ tormented him for a century and a half over losing Katherine. That can't be easy on him…you know how moral Stefan is. All of this—us locking him up—probably made him think that everything you've been saying for _years _is actually true."

Now Damon looked offended—pissed, really. He downed his bourbon and stared at Claire with cold eyes. "No. No, you don't _know _the whole story, Claire. You left us that night, remember?"

"What night?" Claire scoffed, taking a sip out of her own alcohol.

"The night we _turned_," he spat angrily, walking over to the fireplace as if getting ready to leave. Instead, he turned around on his heel and looked at both Elena and Claire. Claire just looked confused, but Elena was consumed with curiosity. Damon looked down at Elena. "Let me ask you this, Elena. In all this important soul-searching and cleansing of the demons of Stefan's past, did you ever manage to get the rest of the story?"

Elena shrugged and straightened. "He said there was more."

"Yeah. That's an _understatement,_" Damon scoffed and turned on his heel to leave the room, as pissed as he could get. Claire put down her bourbon and Elena watched as she flashed over to him and pulled his arm back.

"Damon!" He turned around at her and pulled his arm to the side. Claire looked at him with concern, curious herself. "What are you talking about? What did I miss the night you two were turned?" He fell silent. "Tell me."

Damon swallowed hard, the memory too much for him. He didn't want to relive those horrible moments of his life, but he didn't seem to have a choice. Sincerity lined the blonde vampire's eyes, and he finally sighed.

"You and I just finished talking about the night you compelled me to forget that you were alive when you went on a walk to clear your head," Damon began, walking around Claire to return to the alcohol table behind the couch. Elena and Claire both turned their heads to follow his movement. "I thought Katherine was dead…I'd already made my decision not to turn, but while you were gone, Stefan came back with a girl. A human," he clarified. Claire slowly began to realize, just like Elena, the rest of the story as the pieces fell together. "He forced me to do it."

"Oh…my _God_," Elena breathed out. Damon nodded and took a sip out of the bourbon glass in his hand.

"From the moment Stefan had his first taste of human blood, he was a different person. I suppose I should thank him. It's been a hell of a ride." Damon laughed sickeningly.

Claire shook her head. "_No. _No, you two told me that you just decided that it was worth it to _live. _I…I _believed _you."

Damon shrugged. "Stefan knew you would be disappointed if you found out that he was the one who made me. He thought he'd lose you as a friend, and I already had, so I didn't care."

"He said he wanted to die," Elena whispered. "That's why he won't feed. Now I understand why, but— "

"His choice." Damon poured himself another glass. "If he's stupid enough to make it, so be it."

An angered Claire just began to walk out of the room, but having to say something, she spun around at him and pointed. "Damon, just _stop, _okay? Don't. Don't _pretend _like you don't care and that you've never cared for him a day in your life because it's not _true_ and it's really starting to piss me off."

Damon watched as Claire angrily stormed out of the room and headed for the basement, and he muttered something that she blocked out as she rushed downstairs to see Stefan and confirm the truth in Damon's statement. Instead, when she reached the basement, she found that the door was swung wide open and no one was inside.

"Shit," Claire cursed under her breath as she looked around the empty basement with worry. Looking straight ahead at the bench Stefan had been lying on, she saw something small glint in the dim light. Rushing forward, she reached it and grabbed Stefan's daylight ring that he looked like he intentionally left behind.

Elena came to a halt at the cellar door and watched as Claire turned around with the ring in her hand. Her mouth dropped, and she began to widen her eyes.

"Elena, what the _hell _did you do?" Claire hissed. Elena looked up at her with guilty eyes, and Claire just sighed out of exasperation.

* * *

Stefan found himself back at the quarry, reliving the night that tore his insides up every single day of his pitiful existence. He remembered what Emily said about his heart being pure, he remembered what Damon said about making his eternity an eternity of misery, and he remembered watching as a looking of sadness crossed Claire's features when he told her that they would live _forever_. He knew that some part, no matter how small inside of her, wanted to die, even if she wouldn't admit it. He, once, wanted to die, too.

A pained, broken Stefan looked around the quarry and waited for the sun to rise as he fought the inner demons that clouded him and his judgment. It was only when a familiar voice called his name that he stopped to turn around.

"Stefan."

Claire stood a few feet from her best friend, Stefan's ring in her clenched fist and her expression bearing that of someone who couldn't stand to see another in so much pain. Stefan turned around to look at her and once he did, he stopped and remained completely quiet. Claire nodded to him.

"You lied to me," she said slowly, her eyes glancing around the quarry. "That night, back when you and Damon turned. You said you had both decided on your own to become vampires, but Damon told me the truth."

Stefan swallowed. "I should've died that night, just like I had chosen. We all should've."

"I know." Claire nodded. "I know. We were all ready to die. We were all going to. And you're right, we should've." Stefan bit down on his lip to keep from breaking, and Claire did the same. "But we didn't, Stefan. And dying now won't change what happened that night."

Stefan shook his head in denial. "Every single person that's been hurt…every single life that's been lost, it's because of me."

"We're vampires, Stefan," Claire told him softly. It would've been routine of her to yell and scream, but she felt that it would be pointless in this case. It was what Stefan was _looking _for. He wanted to be yelled at. He _wanted _to be hated so that he could die and know that he had a purpose for it. "People are hurt, lives are lost…sometimes, and that's just the way it has to be. We were all _made _monsters, Stefan. And every single day, we all have to live with that guilt—that _pain _inside of us that tells us how awful we are. The blood makes us something that we all despise, and what you've done is you've _changed. _You decided that you didn't want to be the typical vampire, and that's what I always appreciated about you. You _choose _to be good rather than…what the rest of us are by default."

"You could always control it. You don't understand," Stefan complained, his eyes red from the pain. "Every day I think that…if I just give myself over to the blood, I can make that pain _stop_. It would be that easy, and every day, I fight that. And I-I'm so _terrified _that one day, I'm not gonna wanna fight that anymore, Claire."

"Death…_changes _us, Stef," Claire whispered, her voice broken. "You don't think I look in the mirror every day and ask myself how the hell I'm supposed to get up in the morning knowing what I've done? Knowing how many people I've killed unnecessarily?" Stefan fell silent. "It's our _curse, _Stefan, and we have to live with that. It would be different if you were alone in this, but you're not. You have me. You have your brother. You have _Elena. _Now isn't the time to be selfish, and you know it."

But Stefan was done, and Claire could see that. He was in so much pain that it was evident in the way he looked, the way he moved, and the way he acted. This time, it had changed him. The blood had taken out the ground and had given away the underlay of the real problem at hand—Stefan was torturing himself over the guilt of that night, where it all began.

Claire held up his ring in her hand and displayed it for him, nodding a few times. "I can't force you to stay with me, Stefan. I can't force you to stay with _us_. But if you take this, you can put it on and you can let me take you back and we can figure it out _together _this time…no basement cellar. Or, you could throw it into that quarry and wait until the sun comes up to end this, but I'm telling you right now that it isn't worth it. And that you won't be alone." She placed the ring into Stefan's hand enclosed their fingers around it. She looked up at him. "You're my best friend, Stefan, and I will _never, _ever leave you."

"Claire…" Stefan trailed off, but she just shook her head and released his hand before she lowered herself down onto the ground and sat down on the grass. She looked up at Stefan and waited for him to make his decision, and she found herself increasingly growing worried as Stefan turned his back to her and looked out over the water. She waited impatiently, but she couldn't see what Stefan was doing. Eventually, she found that he turned around and sat down beside of her, grabbing her hand with his. On his hand sat the daylight ring, safe and secure. Claire let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding in, and she looked up at Stefan, who nodded. "Together."

Claire nodded right back at him. "Together." She smiled at him, and Stefan gave her a sad smile back as she moved her head so that it rested on his shoulder and they overlooked the smooth waters of the quarry. The two friends sat in silence for a while before Stefan smiled to himself.

"Even if I had thrown my ring into that quarry, you still wouldn't have let me die, would you?" Stefan asked.

Claire shook her head against his shoulder and whispered, "Absolutely not. Sorry, but you're stuck with me."

She felt Stefan chuckle, which earned her to smile. But she knew he was still hurting, and that wouldn't go away anytime soon. All they had to do was make sure that they were there for each other, as always.

* * *

**Truth be told, I felt really bad about Claire stealing Elena's place at the end of this chapter...so I wanted to apologize for that, just a bit. I want this story to be different than TVD in the aspect that it won't focus fully on romantic relationships but rather the friendship dynamic between Stefan and Claire, Claire and Elena, and even others as we get down the line. I totally should've just named this story "The Salvatores and the King Girl" or something like that because it's literally the main theme I want to get across. **

**But thanks for reading! Review if you can, please.**


	13. Isobel

**Pre-finale chapter! Thanks for the reviews, guys. Keep them coming! **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Isobel**

"I hate this," Claire complained as she, Stefan, and Elena walked into the high school's cafeteria where a bunch of kids were sitting in groups at tables discussing their ideas for their Founder's Day floats. "When Carol asked me to help with Miss Mystic Falls, I didn't think she meant the _float, _too."

Stefan chuckled at her. "You and I both know that you're excited to be bossing a bunch of teenage girls around," he countered. Claire didn't object, but Elena intervened.

"Excluding me, right?"

Claire smiled. "Ah, the sweet sound of _favoritism! _I should've been a teacher."

"Art teacher?" Stefan prompted her. Claire shook her head as she looked around and hummed, trying to think of a subject she'd like to teach if she could. Of course, she'd never really done it before and had no further plans to—fighting against evil in Mystic Falls was enough of a job. Eventually, she found a hypothetical answer.

"English. English teacher. That way, you can tell teenagers that their answers are wrong even when the question asks for an _opinion_." She smirked, and both Stefan and Elena just snickered beside her while they moved deeper into the cafeteria to head towards the Miss Mystic Falls table. Instead, about halfway towards the table, Alaric rushed up to them, his expression distraught.

"Hey, Mr. Saltzman," Elena began as he approached them, trying to be professional, but instead, Alaric just shook his head.

"Come with me. We need to talk," he said immediately and walked in another direction. Claire raised her eyebrows while Stefan and Elena exchanged a worried glance towards each other, but the trio followed the teacher without much of a fight.

A short while after Alaric had brought Claire, Stefan, and Elena into his classroom and had stressed the dire importance of the situation, Damon and Christopher opened the door and entered at the request of Claire, who had texted the both of them to get the school as soon as possible. Elena sat on a desk in the front row, Stefan stood by the window, and Claire was somewhat next to Alaric at the teacher's desk. As soon as the two vampires stepped inside, everyone turned their heads.

"Hey," Alaric greeted them, breaking the deafening silence in the room. "Thanks for coming."

"Sorry I'm late. The dog ate my, uh…" Damon quipped as he strode into the room. But when he felt the dark undertone of the room, he retracted his statement. "Never mind."

"What's going on?" Christopher asked as he stood next to the empty desk adjacent from Elena. He looked at Claire. "You said it was important."

"Yeah…what's all the furrowed brows?" Damon mumbled skeptically, feeling oddly chipper in such an unfriendly room. Alaric, who stood beside him, answered his question with no hesitation at all.

"I saw Isobel last night."

Damon turned his head sharply to the History teacher. "Isobel's _here_? In town?" Alaric nodded and Damon looked around the room to everyone else. Claire sighed.

"You could try to at least make an _attempt_ to mask your excitement, Damon. I know you think she can lead you to Katherine." Claire shook her head without making eye contact with Damon. "But this is serious."

"Where did she find you?" Christopher asked Alaric just as Damon began to move over to be closer to his brother.

"Last night at the Grill while I was having a drink," responded Alaric. "She just…showed up."

"Did you ask her about Uncle John? Are they working together?" Damon pressured.

"No."

"No, they're not?"

"No, I didn't ask."

As Damon moved forward, he began to bombard the teacher with more and more questions that Alaric couldn't answer. "What about the invention?"

"Didn't ask."

"Does she know about the tomb vampires?"

"I don't know."

Alaric and Damon came face to face, and the elder Salvatore looked at the teacher like he was a pre-school student. "Did words completely _escape _you?"

"No, I was a little too distracted by my dead vampire _wife _to ask any questions!" Alaric shouted back, forcing Damon to step back and ease up on the throttle a bit. Claire rubbed her head as she leaned against Alaric's desk, the testosterone in the room getting to her just a bit.

"Did she at least mention what she was doing here? What she _wants_?" asked Christopher, who looked around the room rather than just at Alaric. Elena nodded beside him.

"She wants to see me."

"Alaric is supposed to arrange a meeting," Stefan explained as Damon turned his head at Elena and let the information sink in. "We don't know why or what she wants."

"I'll tell you what she wants." Claire scoffed. "She wants that stupid invention just like that _leech, _John Gilbert—no offense, Elena." Elena shrugged carelessly, taking no offense to Claire's harsh words about her uncle, who no one seemed to like.

"Surely, Elena doesn't have to see her if she doesn't want to..." Christopher tried, but Elena shook her head.

"I don't really have a choice."

"She's threatened to go on a killing spree," Alaric explained. Damon peered at everyone around the room, waiting for someone to give him a sign that he wasn't the only one thinking it. Eventually, he sighed.

"Oh. I take it that's…_not _okay with you guys?" A small smirk appeared on his lips, but Stefan and Claire both looked up at Damon with harsh glances so that he dropped it immediately. From the desk she was sitting at, Elena inhaled sharply.

"I want to do it. I wanna meet her. If I don't, I know I'll regret it."

Claire straightened and dropped her crossed arms with a sigh. "Yeah, but you'll regret it more if you go _alone _to meet her, so why don't we all go with you? Stand in the back somewhere, spread out. Just in case this is a trap." Claire looked back at Elena. "Is it okay for us to go with you?"

The human nodded meekly, and Alaric set straight to work to arrange the meeting with Isobel on their terms.

* * *

Unfortunately, Isobel had made it clear that Alaric and Damon were to be nowhere within the vicinity of the Mystic Grill for her meeting with Elena, and it was a term that was non-negotiable. But while Damon and Alaric were banned, Isobel had said nothing about Claire, Stefan, and Christopher. Claire and Stefan stood at the pool table within Elena's eyesight and Christopher was positioned at the bar for another vantage point just in case anything went wrong. Though he didn't dispute this tactic proposed by Claire, Claire was sure he'd noticed it. The two hadn't been in the forgiving mood ever since she'd killed Henry. This suggestion, however, was what made Stefan become suspicious.

"Spill it," Stefan whispered, low enough so that only Claire could hear his words. "What's wrong with you two?"

Claire looked off in the direction of her husband and didn't look back to Stefan as she muttered under her breath, "We're having…_issues_."

Stefan scoffed. "That's obvious."

Claire turned back at Stefan while sharpening her cue stick, even though she was one hundred percent certain that she wasn't going to use it. "Am I a bad person, Stefan? Have I really changed _that _much since I was human?"

Stefan raised his eyebrows at her. "You've changed, Claire…sure, but…a bad person? Of course not. What does this have to do with…?"

Stefan trailed off, and Claire swallowed hard before she whispered at the lowest tone possible, "Last night, Damon and I killed a vampire who was working for John and…well, I think it would've eventually needed to be done. But after I did it, when Christopher looked at me…"

The young vampire straightened, realizing. "You thought he saw a bad person, didn't you?"

"He's the only one—besides you—who's ever really believed the best in me, vampire or not. But I'm afraid that all that time _apart _changed…_me. _And now I feel like him believing the best of me is more of an…excuse to pretend I'm just the same as I was back in 1864," Claire finished, dropping her eyes. "I don't know, does that seem crazy?"

"Considering you married the guy?" Stefan smiled, and Claire frowned at him, wishing to be serious. He sighed and began to give his words of advice. "Claire, you were turned a week after you got married. You never really had a chance to experience all the ups and downs. _This _is one of your downs. It'll pass."

"Hopefully," Claire added under her breath as she unconsciously pulled all the balls out of the pool table's pockets and let them spread across the table so they attempted to look like they were actually playing a game of pool. While she was doing that, Elena sat at one of the tables out on the floor of the Grill and accepted the cup of coffee she had ordered from the waitress serving her.

"Can you hear me?" Elena asked, looking at all the vampire she knew in the facility. They all nodded to her, and she sighed out of relief. "Thanks for coming—all of you. I'm nervous. But I'm happy that you're all here." Elena's eyes cut over to Stefan so that they were locking gazes, and she said with a smile, "Love you."

Stefan leaned against the pool table and smiled back at her while he mouthed, "Love you, too."

Elena watched with a genuinely happy smile as Claire tapped Stefan's cheek twice and cooed to him, earning him to laugh. But her sight of them was short-lived when Isobel walked right in front of her vision, blocking her view. The brunette vampire set her jacket down on the empty chair beside her and just sat down with her legs crossed and her hands on her lap.

She exhaled and smiled. "Hello, Elena." Elena stayed quiet, reveling in the sight of her mother. "You look _just _like her. It's…eerie."

At this, Elena widened her eyes. "You've met Katherine?"

"She found me after I turned," Isobel explained. "Genetic curiosity, I suppose. She would be _fascinated _by you."

Elena's eyes traveled down to the big, clunky, lapis lazuli necklace around Isobel's neck. "Is that how you can walk in the day?"

"Katherine helped me obtain it," replied Isobel as she touched the necklace subconsciously. Elena moved on quickly, trying to ask questions before Isobel decided she was done answering.

"Who's my father?"

"Not important; he was a teenage waste of space."

"A name would be nice."

"It would, wouldn't it?" Isobel tilted her head at her daughter. "You ask a _lot _of questions."

Elena avoided her mother's gaze for a split moment before continuing, "Why did you compel that man to kill himself right after he told me to stop looking for you?"

"Dramatic impact." Isobel shrugged. "Wish it would've been more effective."

"Human life means that little to you?"

The vampire smiled. "It means _nothing _to me. It's just part of being what I am."

Elena stared at Isobel with disbelief tracing her eyes, and she shook her head without realizing it. Before she could stop herself, words came out of her mouth. "No. It's not. I know other vampires. That's not true."

"You mean your boyfriend over there by the pool table with his best friend? Stefan Salvatore and Clarissa King—oh, wait. I'm sorry; I think she goes by Claire now. And, of course, her husband, Christopher Fell, sitting over there at the bar." All of the vampires who were mentioned straightened at Isobel's words, becoming increasingly alarmed. Isobel continued ruthlessly, "But here's my question for you, Elena. Why Stefan? Why didn't you go for Damon? Or do you enjoy them both? Like Katherine did?"

"I'm not Katherine," Elena stated firmly. Isobel sighed.

"Yes, well, I suppose you could be right about that." She licked her lips once before finally speaking again, this time a bit more openly. "Your friend, Claire? I was hoping you'd bring her along. She needs to come over here—now."

Elena let her eyes flicker up to Claire at the pool table, who just exchanged a worried glance to Stefan and her husband across the room. Isobel waited, but they all should've known that she wouldn't wait long.

"I won't ask again," Isobel warned without turning her head, causing Claire to sigh at the pool table. After handing her cue stick to Stefan, she walked down to the Grill's main floor and finally reached the table, where Isobel was waiting for her to join. A sour smile appeared on her lips as she made eye contact with Isobel.

"I see you get your _charm_ from Katherine."

Isobel hummed under her breath in a bitter agreement and gave her fellow blonde vampire a tart smile. "Sit."

Claire debated upon listening to Isobel—she didn't have to, really, because of the fact that she was twice Isobel's age and could rip her to shreds, but not without collateral damage and an impossible mess to clean up with the town practically sitting right beside them. So, with a sigh, she pulled out the chair on the other side of Isobel and complied. As soon as she situated herself, Elena started up the conversation again.

"Why did you want to meet me? It can't be to just…catch up," the human remarked.

Isobel tilted her head again. "Because I'm curious about you." Elena raised an eyebrow, and obviously, Isobel continued with her real reason. "But, the real reason is, I want what your uncle wants—Jonathan Gilbert's invention."

Claire scoffed. "Like I didn't see _that_ one coming."

"How do you know my uncle?" Elena pressured the vampire.

"I used to spend a lot of time here when I was younger. John had a crush on me for years," Isobel explained. "He was the first one that told me about vampires."

"So what made you want to be one?"

"It's a _very _long list of reasons, Elena. All of which I'm sure you've thought about." Elena shook her head. "That was your first lie. It's inevitable. You're gonna get old. Stefan won't. Forever doesn't last very long when you're human."

Elena sat there, speechless, and Claire saw the look that crossed her face. Saving Elena from the silence, Claire straightened in her seat and turned to Isobel. "Okay…listen to me very carefully, _Isobel. _The fact that you _asked _to be a vampire just proves how pathetic you are. But, out of pure courtesy, I'm going to tell you exactly what Damon and I told John—we're not lifting one _finger _to help you. So you can leave now." Isobel didn't flinch, and Claire scoffed. "Fine. We'll leave then. Elena?"

With a glance over to Elena, both of them rose from their chairs, but not without consequence. Though Isobel couldn't restrain Claire, she _could _restrain her daughter by reaching forward and clasping onto Elena's arm hard. "Sit down. And tell your boyfriend to walk away."

A frightful Elena looked up at Stefan and nodded as she began to sit back down again, not wanting to get on Isobel's proven bad side. Isobel looked up at Claire next, and though the vampire could've gotten out without a hitch, she ended up sitting back down in the chair with a sigh. Once everything was calm again, Isobel let another smile onto her face, serious this time.

"I want the invention," she told Claire. The blonde rolled her eyes.

"Even if I had it—which I don't—I wouldn't give it to you."

"You might not have it, but Damon does. And you _are _going to get it for me or the blood of the innocent will be on your hands, Claire." The blonde sat in her chair with a grimace on her face, but Isobel was finally done. She rose from her seat, grabbed her jacket and purse, and began to saunter out. "It was nice meeting you, Elena."

Claire scoffed watching Isobel walk out the door. It seemed to take forever until she finally mumbled aloud without realizing it. "She wants me to get the invention from Damon. Right, because that's going to be as simple as taking fish away from a freaking _shark_!"

With a disbelieving shake of the head, Claire turned back to Elena, who she could tell was trying to hold it together. The blonde vampire didn't say anything, but watched as Elena spotted someone out of the corner of her eye. Bonnie walked into the Grill and spotted Elena as well just as a tear escaped her eyes and the human breathed in deeply. The witch looked like she was about to move forward and hug her friend, but when Claire stood up and Stefan and Christopher came out from behind Elena, she froze. Elena saw the look on Bonnie's face, and she turned around to look at all vampires.

When Elena turned back around to Bonnie, her friend had turned her back and had walked out of the Grill.

* * *

"Uh-oh, Cherie," Damon sung in a happy disappointment as the half-naked girl next to him set down her cards that read better than Damon's. They were playing his favorite game—strip poker. "You won again. Hope I'm wearing my good underwear."

The compelled human laughed as Damon stood up and unbuckled his belt that was free to him since he had already stripped his shirt when Cherie won the first time. The front door of the foreclosed house slammed, and though Damon knew exactly who it was, he still pulled the zipper down on his pants as a voice rung out.

"It's just one blast from the past after another," Isobel stated as she sauntered into the room and pointed at Damon's halfway-unzipped pants. "No, no, no." Damon hummed under his breath as Isobel walked in and spoke to her compelled human in French, telling her to leave. Damon waved seductively, humming again.

"It's good to see you, Isobel," Damon lied as he reached down to grab his unbuttoned shirt. He slid it over his shoulders and didn't bother with the buttons. "I was just having fun with your naughty little minion."

"Mm. How'd you find me?" Isobel feigned delight for him in her presence. Damon flitted forward so that he was trapping Isobel against the wall she was at, his face right up in hers.

"Searched all the neighborhood bank-owned foreclosures and found the most _expensive _one."

Isobel didn't flinch. "Oh, I should've known. You were the one that taught me that."

"Mmhmm."

"What are you really doing here?"

"Well, you caused quite a stir when you blew into town. Saw _everyone _except for the man who made you—I'm a little hurt," Damon whispered as he brushed a piece of hair out of Isobel's face and pouted. Isobel feigned an apologetic smile as she leaned forward.

"I'm so sorry." She pulled him into a hug, but then yanked his hair to the side and hissed in his ear, "Did you bring the device?"

Damon just laughed, and Isobel let him go with a hard shove as she flashed over to the couch. Damon's smile dropped as he ruffled his hair. "Ow." Isobel laughed. "What are you doing with John Gilbert?"

"We dated a few times when we were young. He was a little bit in love with me."

"I'm sure. One of the many."

"You know, this little invention…what do you want with it?"

"Oh. Me, personally? I don't want anything with it. I'm just doing what I'm told." Isobel handed him a can of beer that he set down immediately and sauntered closer to her. The vampire put her hands up in the hair as if she were surrendering. "You know, Damon, we're on the same side."

Damon tilted her head up as he neared her so they were only inches apart. He scoffed. "Oh, yeah? Which side is that?"

"Katherine's," Isobel answered. Damon dropped his hand and Isobel's came up to cup the back of his neck. "She wants John Gilbert to have the device and I think you know that she's not happy when she doesn't get what she wants."

Damon forced Isobel off of him and urged, "Why are you doing her dirty work?"

"Don't kill the messenger," Isobel complained blandly. "We both know that you can't control Katherine. She does what she wants."

Damon scoffed again. "So do I."

"Oh, _really, _Damon?" Isobel patronized. "You do?" She moved to hit him, but Damon grabbed her hand and forced it back. They were now closer than they were before, which was _too _close. The two vampires panted in desire, and Damon saw Isobel's eyes drop to his lips. "What should we do now?"

The arguing vampires stood for a moment, their noses touching, when they began to laugh with each other over their proximity. Isobel smiled. "Oh…yeah. Memory serves."

All they had to do was just move a fraction of an inch before they were feverishly kissing, and Damon's hand relaxed on her wrist to the point where he was no longer holding it as they kissed roughly. In a flash, Isobel was on top of him, straddling his waist on the couch as she crushed her lips onto his. Damon's hands tangled in her hair and she waited as he flipped their positions to continue their fun.

Instead, Damon pinned Isobel to the ground in a very unfriendly manner, his hand wrapped around her throat tightly so she couldn't escape him. His eyes went wide with fury.

"Now that I have your attention, _listen up_. You do not come into my town and threaten people that I care about. Going after Claire—_bad _move. Katherine already succeeded once at ruining her life and I wasn't there to stop it, but I am _now_." His hand tightened on Isobel's throat as he leaned closer. "You leave her—and Elena, while you're at it—alone, or I will rip you to bits; because I do believe in killing the messenger. You know why? Because it sends a _message._" Damon lifted Isobel up as if he was getting ready to release her, but he then slammed her back down on the floor so that Isobel cried out in pain. "Katherine wants something from me, you tell that little _bitch_ to come get it herself."

Damon finally lifted his hand off of Isobel's throat, and by the time the vampire could recoil, Damon was already gone.

* * *

"I'm sorry—_what _did she say?"

Claire, Elena, Bonnie, and Stefan all gathered in Alaric's classroom at the high school the day the students were help building the floats. Claire had seen the tail end of what happened, but she and Stefan had been too busy to notice that Isobel had showed up at the school seeking leverage. While Elena's mother distracted her with an injury to Matt Donovan, she had her other vampire minions kidnap Jeremy so Elena would have more motivation to get the invention. The exclamation came from Claire, who was baffled at Isobel's apparent words to her daughter.

"She said that I underestimated how much Damon cares about you and that I have to get _you _to get the invention from Damon. She said there's no chance that he'll ever give it to anyone else." Elena nodded firmly, as if believing it herself. But she was panicked and was pacing, trying to get the thought out of her head that her evil vampire mother could be killing her brother because of some stupid Gilbert invention.

Claire scoffed and jumped off Alaric's desk. "Is this woman _high_ or something? Damon won't give me that _stupid _invention! He'd rather _kill_ Isobel instead."

"That's what I tried to tell her," Elena reasoned. "But she took Jeremy, Claire. We don't have any other options. You have to talk to him..._please_."

"He's not just gonna hand it over, especially if it's harmful to vampires," Stefan mentioned aloud, clearly stating the obvious. His eyes swept over Bonnie who had been the one to figure out this information that the Gilbert invention was a hazard to all vampires—it was a two-part mechanism that could be fatal if put together. Claire looked back and forth between Elena and Stefan.

"_I'm _not talking to Damon. I _hate _talking to Damon like I'm some kind of guidance counselor. And not to mention the fact that I don't want to hand it over, either. John will _kill _us!" The blonde threw her hands up in frustration.

Elena sighed heavily, trying to figure out a solution to their problem. But the second she got her mind to work, something sparked. Her gaze immediately cut to Bonnie, who stiffened when addressed. "What if...it's _not _harmful to vampires, then?"

The four people in the room looked back and forth at each other and let the idea slowly sink in.

* * *

"Absolutely _not_," Damon refused the five people who stood against him and waited for the device so they could carry out their deviously dangerous plans. He'd heard everything that came along with giving the device over to Elena, but he didn't trust the witch enough. One wrong move and they could turn into ashes.

Elena sighed. "Just hear me out—"

"I'm not gonna give the device to Isobel so she can give it to John who's gonna turn around and kill me! I like being a living…dead person," Damon reasoned. Elena shook her head, trying to make the vampire before her understand her brilliant plan.

"But it'll be useless! Bonnie can take its power away!"

"I don't trust her."

"I can remove the original spell," Bonnie assured them all, causing Elena to turn back at Damon with her hands thrown up in the air to rest her case.

"John and Isobel will never know."

"No," said Damon again. "No, I-I'll get Jeremy my own way."

"Really?" Stefan prompted, earning Damon to nod at him. "How are you gonna do that? Because Isobel is a _vampire _and Jeremy can be dead the second you walk in the door." Damon fell silent at Stefan's reasoning, but his eyes moved over to Bonnie and narrowed into slits.

"Are you even up for this? I mean, no offense…you're no Emily Bennett." He crossed his arms. "Emily knew what she was doing."

"I've been practicing."

"It's not piano lessons, honey," Damon snarled. A peeved Bonnie walked up to him with great confidence, her eyes cold and hard.

"What's your favorite book?"

Damon raised his eyebrows in confusion at the random question. "What?"

"Name a book. Any. Book," she said slowly. Damon sighed and looked around, trying to come up with a book's title to feed Bonnie's silly little game.

"Name a book," he repeated. "How about…'Call of the Wild', Jack London?"

Almost everyone in the room sighed out of exhaustion as they watched Bonnie walk over to the bookshelf next to her and focused. After a moment, a book on that shelf began to come out of its place next to other books, and it flew over to Damon, who caught it in mid-air. When he looked at the title on the spine, he gave a feigned impressed look and repeated the author that he gave to Bonnie. But his impression was short-lived when he tossed the book elsewhere.

"Great parlor trick."

"We're doing this, Damon," Elena snapped at him. "And we're gonna do it _my _way. Now give me the device."

Damon shrugged. "No."

"We're wasting time!"

"I get it, Elena," Damon spat at her before looking at Bonnie. He was about to walk away, but he found himself telling the witch, "But I don't trust you. I tried to _kill _you."

Bonnie smiled at him in agreement. "You're right. You can't trust me."

Once this had been said, there was no taking it back. Elena was getting desperate now, and she knew that Isobel had been right. She'd known it from the beginning, but she at least had to _try _to get Damon to hand it back to her without Claire's unwilling involvement. The human's eyes travelled over to Claire, who was standing off to the side with her arms crossed. Feeling someone's gaze upon her, Claire looked up to find Elena staring with pleading eyes. Claire didn't want to try, but she figured that there was no harm in it. Everyone would be able to see how wrong they were about Damon's preferences and they could move on from it and find a different plan. But it was worth a shot.

After looking to the side to see her husband next to her waiting for her to make the first move, Claire looked straight ahead to find Damon waiting like everyone else was for the resolution to their conflict. With an exasperated sigh, Claire moved forward and uncrossed her arms while she extended a hand to him.

"I hate this _just _as much as you do," she told Damon, who looked at her with understanding tracing his eyes. "But, if you're gonna trust anyone, you can trust _me_."

Claire waited, one hundred percent positive that Damon wasn't going to give her the device and she would prove to everyone that she was right. But, surprisingly, she found Damon reaching into his pocket to grab the circular invention before he placed it in her hand and squeezed her fingers. Claire looked down at the device and back up at him, and Damon just nodded once. Claire was shocked, but when she didn't say anything, Elena did.

"Thank you," she told Damon, filling into say the thing that Claire couldn't let escape her mouth. The vampire was still completely surprised that it…it _worked. _After everyone else had asked, Damon had given it to _her_? Why?

But her question wasn't answered. After Bonnie removed the spell from the device, Elena, Stefan, Claire, Christopher, and Damon all headed out to go meet Isobel to exchange Jeremy for the invention to end it all. When Isobel showed up, she wasted no time with greetings of any kind and just cut straight to the point like a true emotionless vampire.

"Where's the device?"

"Where's my brother?"

Isobel scowled at her daughter. "This isn't a negotiation. Where's the invention?"

"Where is my brother?" Elena repeated as she crossed her arms defensively.

"Do you really think that I came alone?" Isobel challenged, causing Elena to turn around to see a few of Isobel's vampires walk out as backup. Elena turned around, but didn't flinch.

"Do you really think that _I _came alone?" she pushed, and when Isobel turned, she saw Damon, Stefan, and Christopher walk up behind her. As Isobel was turned, Claire flashed over to Elena's side and waited for Isobel to turn around. When Isobel caught Claire's gaze, the blonde vampire just waved her fingers with an acidic smile.

Isobel sighed and looked at Elena. "For God's sake, call home."

Elena straightened. "What?"

Her mother rolled her eyes. "Call home. Ask to speak to your brother, Jeremy."

Skeptically, Elena turned around and did what Isobel told her to. The telephone rang only twice before her brother answered. _"Hello?" _

"Jeremy! Are you okay?" Elena breathed out.

"_Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Uncle John, uh…hit his head. It was an accident."_

From the background, the vampires could hear Jenna shout, _"And we're all laughing!"_

Jeremy chuckled softly at Jenna's outburst, but then spoke again. _"Yeah, but…um…I'm okay." _

Elena nodded. "I'll be home soon, all right?"

Jeremy sighed. _"Yeah."_ He hung up the phone, as did Elena, and the teenager turned around to Isobel in realization.

"You were never going to hurt him."

"No. I was going to kill him," Isobel corrected her. Elena raised an eyebrow, causing Isobel to shake her head. "Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me. I don't have any."

"But you took a risk with Damon," Elena said suddenly, narrowing her eyes. "How did you know he'd _only _give it to Claire?"

Isobel wasted no time in answering, and she didn't even look at the subject of conversation as she said it, "Because he's in love with her." Finally, Isobel's eyes looked over at Claire, who straightened out of surprise. "Oh, don't look surprised, Clarissa_._ I'm sure the topic's come up once or twice over the decades."

"You're wrong." Claire scoffed, shaking her head in disgust. "You don't know anything."

"I know that your marriage is falling apart," Isobel told her with a shrug, not turning her body and inch. Claire's eyes moved back to look at Christopher, who was tensing up at the mention of it. "It's obvious, really. Being separated tore you away from each other, whether you choose to believe it or not. Your old lives are gone, it's time to start accepting that." Isobel held out a hand for the device, and Claire just shook her head and scoffed once more.

"You know what? Screw _you. _Like you're the expert on marriage. You left a man who loves you to become a _vampire. _I don't think marriage counseling is really your forte," she snapped as she pulled out the device and placed it in her hand. She said nothing more but just stepped back, rolling her eyes at the childishness of Isobel's statement. But some part of her—deep inside—told her briefly that Isobel was right. She shoved that part out of her as fast as the voice came inside of her head.

Isobel turned to leave, but Elena stopped her. "Thank you."

Her mother turned back with a cocked eyebrow. "For what?"

"For being such a monumental disappointment," Elena answered with a shrug. "It keeps the memory of my real mother _perfectly_ intact."

Isobel showed no signs of being hurt by the statement, and she just said, "Goodbye, Elena," before turning with her group of vampire friends to leave. As Isobel fled, Stefan walked up to hug Elena and comfort her during the tough time of watching her real mother throw her away like she was unimportant, but Claire just stood beside them and watched as Isobel left. When she turned her head, what she didn't expect was to find both Christopher and Damon staring at her, both of them realizing exactly what she had.

Stefan peered at his friend over Elena's shoulder, and Claire stiffened before her eyes caught Stefan and she shared a look of panic with him.

* * *

After dressing from the much-needed cold shower she ran right into after she came home, Claire walked out into her bedroom and ran her fingers through her wet blonde strands of hair. She hadn't spoken much since telling Isobel off, but on the inside, she was having an internal argument with herself. It screamed at her, it kicked at her, and she hated every second of it.

It didn't help that, when she escaped from the solitary of her bathroom, Christopher was standing at the door with a glass of alcohol in his hand. She straightened seeing him and cleared her throat.

"Oh…hey. Sorry, I…err…didn't see you there," she apologized awkwardly and walked over to the dresser to keep messing with her hair for something to do. The two of them avoided each other's gazes, until Christopher walked into the room and stood behind her so that his image was clearly in the mirror.

"I think we need to talk."

Claire swallowed hard before looking up to find her husband staring at her seriously, setting his glass down on the bench at the foot of the bed. Pursing her lips, Claire turned around and kept her fingers tightly gripped on the dresser.

"About what?"

"You know what," Christopher countered softly. Claire fell silent. "What happened with Isobel tonight…what happened with Henry the other night. We can't sit here and…_ignore_ it anymore."

Claire bowed her head into herself and thought about what to say. Normally, with Damon, it wasn't this…_calm. _Arguments that she'd had were always heated. They were never serene, they were always challenging. A tug-o-war, somehow. This was new to her, actually _talking _instead of yelling. She cleared her throat. "What do you think of me?"

Christopher blinked at her. "What?"

"I mean…when you look at me, what do you see? Do you see _Clarissa _or do you see _Claire_?"

He scoffed. "Is there a difference?"

"Yes, actually. There is." Claire nodded. "I've…changed, okay? I'm not the same girl back in 1864 who was—at the very least—polite to everyone. I've killed people and I've done things that…that even _I'm _not proud of, but I learn to accept it, because that's just who I am. And when you say that you believe the best of me, all I can think about is what that _means. _I feel like it's an excuse to say that 'Clarissa' is inside of me somewhere."

"Claire…Clarissa…the name doesn't matter," Christopher protested, looking at her with puzzlement. "I accept you for who you are—I've always done that, even when you and Katherine came to me and she forced you to tell me what you are. I was never _afraid, _not even for a second. "

"But you were human!" Claire argued. "That was different. I sat there, and I _sobbed _because I thought you would hate me. Instead, you still saw...human Clarissa, somewhere, so you weren't afraid. But now, you're a vampire, too, and I feel like you still look at me like I'm supposed to be…human. When the truth of the matter is, I've changed more than you can ever imagine."

"Because you've slept with other men?" Christopher scoffed, as if the thought was inconceivable. Claire shrugged, almost agreeing. When he saw his wife's eyes that let him know his inconceivable thought was exactly what she was thinking, he shook his head. "No. You and I both know _that's_ not what _this_ is about."

"Then what _is _it about?"

"Damon," Christopher returned seriously. They stood for a while in utter silence before Claire arched an eyebrow.

"What about Damon?"

"That's what changed you, isn't it?" Christopher asked as he reached down with the bourbon glass in his hand. "All this time on the outside with him, you and Damon have become something similar. And maybe even something more, as Isobel seems to think."

"Isobel is a _pathetic, _selfish little _bitch _who gave up her humanity to be a _vampire_!" Claire protested, now getting angry. "And you're going to actually _listen _to her?"

"Then tell me that she was wrong," Christopher suggested, no trace of humor or a way out in his eyes. Claire stood quietly, trying to hold her ground. This was a battle she chose, and she wouldn't give up so easily. "Tell me that she had no idea what she was talking about and that you don't _think_—even just a little bit—that Damon's in love with you."

She took a long while to think over her answer, but eventually, words found their way out of her mouth. "What does it matter if he is? And that doesn't mean that he _is, _okay? Damon and I are...we're _complicated. _We're enemies, but we're friends, too. And, yes, there are days when Damon and I can actually admit that we don't absolutely _despise_ each other, but…" Suddenly, she trailed off, losing her own train of thought. A dark cloud began to settle on Claire when she realized exactly what they were doing: fighting—yet again—about Damon Salvatore. Hysterically, she laughed. "You know what? No. I _refuse_ to have the same argument with you for the rest of my life. I can't—I _won't_ argue over him forever, Christopher. I won't do it."

The couple stared at each other for a long time until Christopher looked down at the alcohol in his hand and just stared. "I think I'm going to find another room to sleep in for the night."

Neither one of them said a word after that, and Claire didn't find herself objecting when Christopher just walked out. She was right, to some extent—she couldn't have the same argument over and over for the rest of eternity. No matter if his argument had merit, it was the trust that was diminishing between them. And it wasn't just because of Damon; it was because of all the time they spent in two separate worlds before finally reconciling.

* * *

While Damon poured himself a glass of much-needed alcohol, he heard Stefan walk into the study with his trademark concerned expression. With a glance back at his brother, Damon smiled, "Would you like one?" Stefan was silent, and Damon knew there was a big, fat elephant in the room. "Say it! Whatever it is…purge. Get it out."

Stefan sighed and leaned over the railing in the study. "It's about what Isobel said."

Damon turned around at his brother and pretended like it was no big deal. "What about it?"

Stefan stared at his brother with confusion in his eyes. "Well…I know that you and Claire have been on good terms lately and that…well, you've both cared about each other in your own ways ever since your falling out."

Damon smirked to himself. "Well this is going in an _interesting _direction."

Stefan just smiled lightly, but the topic was nothing to be joked about. He was concerned with the wellbeing of his friend, who was already handling enough trying to fix things in her marriage. "Damon, Claire is married. I just want to make sure that you know that. I think it's gotten to the point now where you two consider yourselves…friends again."

Damon shrugged. "Yes, Stefan. I know that Claire is _married. _And I do consider her a friend. Maybe I'm not_ her _best friend since you stole that from me, but still a friend. Actually, she might qualify as my only…friend. Is that a problem?"

Stefan pursed his lips. "A little."

Damon frowned at him. "So now there's a rule that I can't be friends with married women?"

"Actually, you can't be friends with _any _women, if we're being honest here." Damon just smirked to himself at the thought, and Stefan crossed his arms. "But she's trying to work things out. I want her to work things out. Maybe things would've been different if you hadn't had that falling out, but you did. Do you understand what I'm trying to say to you, Damon?"

"Sure." Damon shrugged again, taking a sip out of his bourbon. "Sure, sure. I totally understand—we're just friends, anyway." Damon gasped and snapped his fingers. "Speaking of friends, I almost forgot about Elena! Don't you think you should tell her the truth or something?"

Stefan flashed over to Damon as he began to pour himself another glass of bourbon. "What truth?"

"About John," Damon said, as if it were obvious. But Stefan was as clueless as ever and, grateful for the subject change, Damon was irritably happy to ease some of his brother's confusion.

* * *

"So you're not gonna tell me what happened?" Caroline asked Bonnie as the two friends sat at the Grill, talking. Bonnie was clearly upset about something, but she refused to speak about it. For good reason, too, since Caroline had no knowledge of the supernatural. But the guilt was eating Bonnie alive, ripping at her very core, desperate to get out. The truth was on the tip of her tongue and, she felt like if she even opened her mouth, it would spill out. As a result of this, she just shook her head tightly and didn't say a word. After a patronizing look from Caroline, Bonnie realized that it was killing her to keep it a secret.

"I did something bad, Caroline. And I lied about it." Bonnie's confession wasn't easy, and it was also vague.

"To who?"

"To Elena," replied Bonnie. "I pretended to do something...I didn't really do."

Caroline straightened out of puzzlement. "What are you talking about?"

"I _couldn't _do what she wanted me to do. It wasn't right. Grams would've _never _done it, so I couldn't, either." Bonnie quivered, trying not to give away too much information to her oblivious friend. But how could she sit and pretend like everything was okay when she betrayed the person she trusted with her life? "But when Elena finds out...she's never gonna forgive me."


	14. Founder's Day

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Founder's Day**

**Mystic Falls, 1865**

_It was strange coming out of her mouth, but an innocent Clarissa giggled as her husband pulled her into their bedroom in the Fell household without breaking their kiss. He didn't shut the door, and she suspected that it was for a reason to be explained later. He kissed her lovingly, his hands around her face and his lips giving her the sweetest kisses he could possibly manage. The husband and wife duo were happy, to say the least, after one week of blissful marriage. No one had interrupted them or requested much of their help. Because of the war, it was impossible for them to take a real honeymoon somewhere else; it was just too risky. _

"_I," Christopher began as he kissed her once, twice, and finally pulled away to look into her eyes, "am going to go get something for us to toast to. It won't take me long." _

"_Sounds perfect," Clarissa whispered with a genuine smile as her hands slid down to Christopher's vest. He kissed her again before pulling away entirely, getting out of her grasp. _

"_I love you, Clarissa," he said seriously. She nodded at him and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth without saying it back. He didn't notice, however, and just left the room without saying much else. She was aware that he knew, for some unique reason, that she couldn't say the words "I love you" in a sentence. And, for another strange reason, Christopher never quite cared. He accepted it, she realized, and had moved on. _

_Clarissa sighed and turned back to her room—their room, really. She had moved into the Fell household since she became a Fell, but it wasn't that bad. Her father and her mother came over to visit often, seeing as they were still in the same town and they were friends with Thomas and Honoria. She was…content with her lifestyle. It hadn't gotten boring…yet. _

_When Clarissa turned hearing the door open just a smidge after Christopher had pulled it shut to go downstairs, she expected to see him at the doorway. Instead, she saw Katherine Pierce, waiting with an innocently vicious smile. _

"_M-Miss Pierce," Clarissa breathed out, quite startled from the intrusion. "H-How did you—?" _

_In something that Clarissa couldn't explain, Katherine maneuvered herself so that she was standing right in front of the blonde in the blink of an eye. Clarissa widened her eyes and braced to scream, but Katherine's hand was over her mouth to restrain her, and then she felt her head hit something hard and her eyes fluttered shut. _

* * *

"Ow, this dress hurts," Elena bellyached as she clasped her vervain necklace onto the back of her neck. Claire held up the human's curled brunette hair for her to get the necklace clasped without much of a problem. Hearing the complaint, Claire scoffed and met Elena's eyes with a hard stare in the mirror.

"Try wearing one _every _single day since the age of fifteen," she pointed out. Elena widened her eyes. "Yeah. It wasn't fun."

"Well you're lucky!" Elena gestured to the vampire's easy-flowing corset dress that she was forced to wear, too, as she was being honored for her help on the pageant. "You don't have to wear this ridiculous _skirt_."

"Yeah, heads up," Claire pointed out as she looked at Elena in the mirror. "That thing is super easy to trip on so…be _extremely _careful." Elena laughed a little, and Claire fixed the human's hair before taking a step back to admire her work. "Okay…I am officially weirded out. You look…_exactly _like Katherine. It really is...eerie."

Elena scoffed. "Thanks. Because that's what I needed to hear. I look like my evil vampire ancestor who forced you to become a vampire. _Awesome,_" Elena taunted, turning around to try and fiddle with the tightness of the corset's strings. Claire slapped her hands away.

"Suck it in. And it wasn't really meant to be an insult…but I mean, coming from me, I guess it would sound that way." Claire admitted and turned to the mirror herself to make sure she looked presentable.

She didn't want to be honored for her help—especially since Carol insisted that her husband be up there with her. Christopher and Claire hadn't spoken a word to each other since the night before after their fight, and she was sure it'd be awkward. But she had to admit, she was appreciative of the fact that she got to pull out the only dress she saved from 1864—the only one she liked because it didn't have that ridiculous hoop skirt. The saturated blue color complimented the color of her pale hair and gave her skin a lift from being so pale, which was always a plus. Blue tended to help her in that aspect.

"So…" Elena trailed off as she turned in a circle and came face-to-face with Claire. She sighed, despite how impossible it was in the dress. "How are…things?"

Claire peeked at Elena from the corner of her eyes as she fixed her hair in the mirror. She sighed, too. "With Christopher, you mean?" Elena nodded. "Rough. Things are rough. When Isobel said that Damon was in love with me, it made the argument that we've had a _dozen _times just…come back up again. And I absolutely _hate _that argument."

Elena was silent for a while. "Do you…think that maybe…?"

Claire turned sharply to Elena. "Don't say it."

"What if she was right?" Elena blurted out before Claire could stop it. The blonde vampire just sighed again and tried desperately to avoid the conversation. "What if Damon _is _in love with you? Wouldn't that change things?"

Claire scoffed. "Of course not. Even if he _were_ in love with me—which he _isn't_—I'm still married…"

Elena bit down on her lip. "But…did you ever think that…maybe you aren't?" she asked tentatively, watching as Claire looked up at her with a confused expression.

"I'm pretty sure the priest was legitimate, Elena. It was 1864, there was only _one_ priest—"

"No, I mean…" Elena scrambled for the right words. "Look, you spent 145 years apart…and during that time, you kind of thought he was dead. But just because he wasn't doesn't mean that you have to still be in love with him. Feelings change. People change."

"I know." Claire nodded at her. "I _have _changed. He's changed, too. That's what we're fighting about, remember?"

"Maybe you're actually fighting because…well, because you know that you're trying to hold onto something that's not there anymore," Elena suggested. Claire waited, trying to process the theory. "I mean, maybe it's time to start fresh. If you want to make it work, you should get to know each other as _vampires, _not as husband and wife."

"But what if we don't like each other as vampires?" Claire asked with a frown, trying to let the idea sink in.

Elena shrugged. "Then I think you know your marriage is over."

* * *

"Look at you," Damon scoffed as he walked over to Christopher, who was studying all of the students rushing to get ready for the parade around him. Christopher looked to see Damon out of the corner of his eye, and he sighed. "All _retro_."

"What are you doing here, Damon?" Christopher asked, a little peeved. He didn't want to be talking to the reason he was on the outs with his wife, it seemed a little backwards. Damon shrugged as he came to his old friend's side.

"Why wouldn't I be here? Bonnie deactivated the Gilbert invention. Isobel's gone…" Damon scoffed. "And it's Founder's Day! I'm here to eat cotton candy and steal your wife." A smirk played on Damon's lips, but the statement just caused Christopher to shake his head.

"I'm not really in the mood for jokes right now, Damon. What we're going through is serious."

"I know. And it's _seriously _about me." Damon shrugged and rolled his eyes. "But, look, my brother thinks it's important for me to acknowledge the fact that you to are, unfortunately, _married_. So I'm here to tell you that I acknowledge it. Besides, married women aren't really my _thing_."

Christopher scoffed and resisted the growing urge to roll his eyes. There was a time when he admired Damon, when he looked up to him. But that time had long since passed when Claire told him that Damon was the reason she never realized he was in the tomb.

"_Claire _is your 'thing', Damon. You think that I don't know that?"

"I think that you married the woman I wanted to be with for my entire adolescent years." Despite the fact that it was a rude statement, Damon shrugged and gave Christopher a smile and a pat on the shoulder. "But I'm over it. Bygones, right?"

"I didn't have a choice," Christopher argued. Damon frowned at this. "You know how it went back then. You had already fallen through and I couldn't say no."

Damon let out a snort. "And, of course, why would you want to? It's _Claire _we're talking about here. But if you really believed that you were _forced _to marry her, then I suddenly _do not _feel bad at all that you two are fighting over me."

The other vampire scowled. "You don't feel bad either way, Damon. But if you must know, over time, I actually _wanted _to get married to her."

"Everyone did," Damon commented, annoyance lining the exterior of his words. Clarissa King had been the most beautiful woman in Mystic Falls before Katherine came—it wasn't just Christopher waiting in line in case her engagement with Damon fell through. Though their marriage was supposed to go off without a hitch, there still happened to be a crowd of men waiting on the other side in case of emergency. The betrayals bothered Damon, but it was so long ago that he rarely gave it a thought anymore.

"What's going on here?" another voice asked, and Damon and Christopher looked behind them to see Stefan appear, dressed in the same attire as Christopher—southern-style clothing that resembled what they would've worn back in 1864.

Damon turned around at Stefan with a smile. "Christopher and I were just having a friendly little conversation about our _beloved_ Clarissa."

Stefan looked back and forth between Christopher and Damon. His eyes eventually settled on his brother. "Don't start, Damon."

"I'm not starting anything! You're the one who got all protective…big-brother-y. Which is odd if you think about it because she's older than you by four years." Both of the vampires that stood on either end of Damon said nothing, and he just sighed at them. "Look, I totally get it. I'm the better, hotter, _superior _choice. And now that Katherine's out of the picture, it makes…_some _sense that I'd turn all my attention to Claire."

"It doesn't just make _some _sense," Christopher pointed out. "It makes _perfect _sense."

"I haven't thought about her that way in…_years_," Damon assured the two heroic vampires before him. But he was lying, plain and simple. "You two have absolutely _nothing _to worry about."

The statement seemed to be holding ground, but it all fell through once Damon's eyes wandered beyond the two retro-styled vampires that stood before him. Both Stefan and Christopher turned around to see Claire and Elena walk out in daylight across the lawn, seemingly looking around for them. Damon's breath caught involuntarily, and his eyes narrowed as if he was seeing something that he'd never seen before. He could feel something different about the way his eyes made contact with her body. Instead of the usual response he had where all he wanted to do was have her shut her opinionated little mouth and stay quiet while he had his way, he found himself actually admiring the way the light radiated off of her hair or the way she clenched and unclenched her fist out of anxiety.

There was some truth to his statement—Damon hadn't thought about Clarissa in a particular way in years. Or, the statement _was _true...until he saw her then.

Claire spotted the three vampires first, and Elena second. First, their eyes both roamed over Stefan, who gave them both small smiles to reassure them. With one lingering look to his brother and his best friend's husband, Stefan walked over to the two, greeted Claire, and watched as Elena bowed to him teasingly. After a good laugh, Stefan took Elena away to talk with her in private and Claire let her head come back to Christopher and Damon, who were just staring. An awkward feeling rose in Claire's chest, and she was about ready to turn on her heel and leave.

Before she could, Christopher cleared his throat and walked in front of Damon and away from Claire, causing the blonde vampire to sigh. Married life, she realized, was not everything she thought it would be. Once Christopher was gone, Damon made his way over to Claire, who tried giving him a smile so he couldn't see through the rock-hard wall she kept up around him. However, Damon had spent so much time with her over the years that he knew her tells. It was easy to see that she wasn't handling all of it very well.

"Now if _that _isn't a blast from the past! Marianne's birthday dinner…1861?" Damon recalled with a smirk on his face. He decided not to dwell on the obvious...at least, not yet.

"1862," Claire corrected and arched an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you remembered it, though."

"It's hard not to remember the dress that you wore when you threw a poker at my head." Damon's lips turned down. "You're lucky I ducked out of the way."

"I'm sorry if I was pissed because you decided to drop the bomb that you were joining the Confederacy...the _night _before you left," Claire admitted, taking out a shaking breath. Damon smiled almost proudly, but Claire avoided his gaze. Eager to move on, she looked to the side to find Stefan and Elena in the middle of a stressful conversation. "What's that about?"

Damon hummed under his breath. "Wanna know a secret?" She looked back at him. "John Gilbert is Elena's biological daddy."

Her eyes went wide with shock, and she let out a laugh in hopes of it just being a joke. "You're…you're _kidding, _right?" He shook his head tightly, causing her to straighten and drop her smile. "Y-You're _not _kidding? What the…_how_?"

"Well, Claire, when a man and a woman—"

Claire put her hand up in the air to stop him. Damon smiled again. "Ah. I'm all good on that. But thanks. So…Isobel and _John_?" He nodded this time, causing her to visibly shudder. "God, I think I want to _puke. _That's disgusting."

"Why?"

"Because it's…_John. _And…and _Isobel_." Claire covered her mouth with her hand. "And now I can't get the…the _image _out of my head!" Damon shrugged carelessly and looked around at the crowd. The blonde vampire just let out a sigh and dropped her hand from her mouth. "Wow. That's gonna be really hard for Elena."

"I would think it would be easier for her. You know…now she doesn't have to meet some stranger and start calling him dad."

"Yeah, but it's…John we're talking about. First of all, she spent her entire life thinking that he was her uncle. Secondly…we all know what an ass John Gilbert is. That can't be easy to take in."

Damon gave a look of approval. "Point taken."

Still looking after Stefan and Elena, Claire finally saw the two part when Elena went after her brother. Feeling awkward around Damon for the most part, Claire turned back at him and tugged her bottom teeth between her lip before jerking her thumb back to Stefan. "I should probably..."

"Yeah, you should." Damon nodded in agreement. She gave him a tight smile.

"I'll see you after the parade, then." It was an awkward goodbye, but it did the job. Claire picked up her dress and started walking towards Stefan, who walked forward a few steps to meet her. Once she got up to him, she sighed. "So your girlfriend's uncle is her biological father, huh? Pretty messed up."

"Well, Damon seems to think it's a pure fact, but there's no real evidence, so we can't be sure until she asks him," Stefan clarified. Claire's mouth dropped and she nodded her head with an "ahh" sound in agreement. "So…how are you doing?"

Claire sighed. That was twice she'd been asked that question, and she didn't want to hear it again for the rest of the day. If she did, she was afraid she might explode. But since it was Stefan, she gave him the benefit of the doubt. "I'm fine…for now. It's going to be super awkward up there on that float, though. Jesus. Have you ever heard of a wife feeling uncomfortable around her _husband_?"

"I think it actually might be more common than you would imagine," Stefan commented, earning the other vampire to shrug. "And…how are things with Damon?"

Claire shrugged again, trying to pass it off as if there was nothing to think of when it came to the elder Salvatore brother. "Fine, I guess. Damon is Damon, you know that."

"It's just…I'm a little worried," Stefan admitted, clearing his throat. "I don't really want to see you get hurt, Claire. And I feel like Damon getting into your marital problems is going to do just that."

"Damon…" Claire trailed off, trying to come up with the words. "Damon…is the least of our problems, I think. Christopher and I don't really…_know _each other. As vampires, that is. I think we just…jumped into things too fast after the tomb. After so many years, it's just gotten to the point where we're…different." Stefan nodded in understanding as Claire sighed. "But yes, Damon's a _part_ of the problem."

"I know you both care about each other," Stefan began, nodding. "But…and I know I've asked this before and everything but…have you two ever…?"

This was the point of sheer lying to Stefan: there was no way around it. If ever confronted about this lie, she would be screwed. Claire shook her head. "Stefan, of course not. I mean, sure…back when we were teenagers, there was…something, but it was over too fast. Nothing happened."

Stefan eyed her carefully, but just eventually ended up nodding. "Good. I just…want you to be happy, Claire. It's all I've ever wanted."

Claire let a smile start to overcome her face, no matter how hard she tried to fight it. "You're too good to me, Stef." She pulled him closer into a hug, and she squeezed him a few times before pulling back. "Thanks."

Stefan smiled and looked down at her dress. "Marianne's birthday dinner…1861?" he tried. Claire frowned.

"1862."

"I'm almost _positive _it was 1861."

"_Almost _positive. Not positive." Claire pointed at him. "It was 1862. Trust me." Looking behind Stefan, Claire spotted Elena just give an outward sigh as she watched her brother walk away from her angrily. With a raised eyebrow, Claire watched Stefan turn around to look where she was. "What's happening with them?"

"Oh…Jeremy's upset because of what happened that night Vicki died." Stefan turned back to her and jogged her memory. "Remember…I told you, Damon compelled him to forget?"

Claire nodded. "Right. Right, I remember. You said the kid was devastated. Why is he so pissed off?"

"I mean…it was supposed to be his choice, Claire. I can kind of see where he's coming from," Stefan reasoned. Claire just shook her head.

"Maybe. But Elena had a valid reason from what I've heard." Her lips twitched down in sorrow. "God, I hate it when siblings fight. You and Damon, especially. Family's just...to important for that kind of stuff, you know?"

Stefan grimaced. "So…it's okay when _you _and Damon fight, but for me and Damon…?"

"_Totally_ unacceptable," Claire finished with a shake of her head. Stefan chuckled under his breath, his smile as genuine as ever, and Claire laughed right with her friend and the two moved to get on the parade float.

* * *

_Clarissa groaned as she stirred from her state of forced sleep, and she found herself lying down…seemingly on grass. She lifted her head to found that she felt light-headed and her vision spun before her, making it hard to see in the already difficult light of the evening. Crickets chirped, the sound of water rushed, and a slow, smooth voice sounded in her ear._

"_Wonderful. You've woken." _

_Once Clarissa's vision straightened, she found that Katherine was standing by the river just on the edge of town, smiling up at her vindictively. Clarissa felt something warm on her head, and she reached up to find that, when she pulled away, blood coated her fingers. She gasped and looked up at Katherine. _

"_You…harmed me," she accused, the blood evidence enough. "W-Why?" _

_Katherine stepped forward. "I had planned on killing you in your own home, but…well, what fun would that be?" _

"_Killing me?" Clarissa repeated, shaking her head. "Why would you want to kill me? I've done nothing to you." _

_Katherine's smile dropped immediately. "Even on the brink of death, you can sit here and lie to my face?" Clarissa looked up at Katherine with confused eyes, and this made Katherine clarify. "You've lied to everyone, Clarissa. Your parents, your husband, your best friend. You and Damon Salvatore did not argue over a childish _vase_!" _

_For fear of death, Clarissa could not lie anymore. She nodded. "He kissed me."_

"_He loved you," Katherine rectified, using her own opinion as evidence. "He still does. And I know that you won't hesitate to take him back." _

"_I'm married," Clarissa fought, finding the will to stand on her own feet. "And I am not an adulterer! I will not cheat on my husband!" _

_Katherine shook her head and gave her a sad smile. "I don't believe you, Clarissa. Even if I did, it doesn't change the fact that—as long as you're alive—Damon will never truly be mine." _

_Clarissa swallowed as she came to a stop on her own two feet. The blood loss from her head was getting to her, and she was becoming weaker. "I have no interest in him. He knows this, too. I only _tolerate _him because I'm friends with Stefan!" _

"_That's not good enough," Katherine said simply. "There is something about you…that I don't particularly _like_." _

_Clarissa felt her head spin even more. She was being punished…because she simply was not _liked. _How was that fair, in any world? Before she had a chance to object, Katherine was at her again, and Clarissa suddenly felt herself unable to breathe. Water molecules covered her face, freezing her features as she was divulged in the cold water. She kicked and flailed to breathe again, and Katherine finally brought her out. Clarissa emerged with a gasp, trying to gain air. Goosebumps appeared on her arms, and her teeth started to chatter from the ice-cold water. _

"_How is it that he ever loved you?" Katherine hissed, her eyes narrowing. "It doesn't make any sense at all." _

"_Katherine—" Clarissa was forced back into the water again. This time, it lasted longer than the last one, and the pressure that was being applied to her wound on her head was making her cry out under water. Finally, Katherine brought her back out again, letting her breath. Clarissa's pale hair dripped with the river water, falling on her dress, her face, and Katherine's hand. _

"_I should kill you," Katherine snarled. "It would be so simple. But it would be painless. Death is too _kind _for someone like you." At this point, Clarissa was crying, having no way out of it. Katherine was ruthless—vile. She just wanted it to be over. Suddenly, Katherine gasped. "No! No, you won't die. Not yet." _

_For a moment there, Clarissa thought that Katherine was going to let her go. Relief filled her, but instead, she felt pressure on her mouth, and a rustic liquid was being forced down her throat. Clarissa tried to keep it from falling down her esophagus, but it was pointless. Katherine made sure her mouth was open and that she swallowed all the blood being forced into her system. Eventually, Katherine brought her hand away from Clarissa's mouth, and the human just choked and doubled over, her wet hair adding to the weight on her head. Katherine let her have a moment to breathe before grabbing her head again to stick her underneath the freezing cold water. _

"_Say goodbye to your human life, Clarissa King," the vampire sneered, and after another minute of keeping Clarissa underneath the water as she flailed, she finally ceased. _

* * *

All around the town square, members of Mystic Falls gathered around the streets to witness the parade floats that were presented with much extravagance and creativity. Carol Lockwood stood up at a stage that was set up with a microphone mostly for this purpose, reading off of index cards to introduce the parade floats as they were to go by.

"Let's give a big hand to the Mystic Falls High School marching band!" Carol announced in the microphone, causing the crowd to cheer and applaud for the club that walked by on their feet, playing music to be in the background of the parade.

Once the marching band had passed the checkpoint for Carol to move on, she began with the first actual float, "And, for a little local history, Mr. Saltzman's students have recreated Virginia's Battle of Willow Creek!"

The high school students waved at the crowd as their parade float went by. Each of the students was dressed in Civil War era uniforms, complete with blotches of "blood" on them for emphasis.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Carol began slowly, "please welcome our stunning Miss Mystic Falls court and their handsome escorts! And let's give a round of applause to Claire King and her husband, Christopher Fell, for their contributions to our outstanding pageant!"

Out in the street, the Miss Mystic float slowly drove by with the instruction of a red truck. On the float, Caroline and Matt stood at the very top, Elena and Stefan right below them, and the two pairs of contestants and escorts that placed equally. Each of the proper girls waved out into the crowd, their bodies turned to reveal their luxurious dresses. Claire and Christopher stood at the end of the float, waving out into the crowd as they applauded for the float.

"This is Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls!" Carol called out, and everyone applauded for her. "Aren't they beautiful?"

Out from the crowd, as Claire waved to all the kids and parents who decided to try and capture her attention, she spotted Damon as he emerged out into the front of the crowd. With his eyes down and devilish, his lips curled into a smirk and he gave her a taunting wave and a wink, which Claire just sighed to and moved on, pretending like she didn't notice. However, even though she wanted to pretend like it didn't happen, it did—and she wasn't the only one who noticed.

* * *

After the parade was over and Claire was allowed to change back into her normal clothes, she decided to walk into the Grill to get an afternoon drink, seeing as it was much needed with the level of uncomfortableness up on the parade float. She was positive Christopher had seen Damon's inappropriate little gesture out in the crowd, and it wouldn't surprise her if Stefan and Elena had seen it also. Even though it was still daylight outside, the sun was setting and it was time to relax and sit back while the rest of Founder's Day dragged on. Apparently, there were fireworks later, which potentially could be something interesting.

Damon, who had been standing in the Grill to pass time, watched as Claire walked into the Grill dressed for modern times again, and he found himself appreciating it. It seemed odd, since he grew up with her back in 1864 where girls wore the same clothes that she was wearing earlier, but there was something about the modern clothes that was nicer. Deciding to speak up, he stepped in front of her and smiled.

"I like you better like this," he confessed, earning Claire's attention. She slowed seeing him, and they came to a stop in front of each other. "The period look is definitely better served staying in my memories."

Claire scoffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder teasingly. "I know. I'm more _badass_ this way, right?"

"_Super _badass," he agreed, his eyes unconsciously rolling over the length of her body again. Claire caught the gesture, and when his eyes returned to hers, she tensed up for a moment before letting out a sigh and crossing her arms. Damon realized that she went from being the fun, light Claire to the uptight one.

"Okay…listen," she started, almost looking like she was kicking herself because she had to have this conversation with him. "I really…I don't want to start anything, but we need to talk. There are a lot of people..._worried _about us getting along."

Damon cocked a grin. "Did Stefan mention something to you, too?"

Claire nodded. "He asked me if anything had ever…" She gestured between the two of them, but then backed out. "Whatever. We know what happened, but it's in the past. And…I know I'm having problems or…something, but I need you to know that, that um…" Damon waited and watched as she struggled for more words. It was fun, almost, to watch her grasp for any kind of out. "Obviously we can't forget about what's been _going on _between the two of us, but I'd like to move past it. Be friends again, o-or something."

Damon and Claire held each other's gazes for a while before Damon scoffed. "Claire, I don't think I can ever truly _be _your friend. That was one of the reasons we started our secret arrangement in the first place, remember?" She stiffened and swallowed and Damon studied her reaction with caution. Seeing her disappointment, Damon sighed heavily and amended his statement. "But, I _suppose _I could find another rude, self-entitled, unbelievably _badass _blonde to keep me satisfied."

Claire looked up at him and saw him smiling, clearly trying to be funny about it. She laughed. "I know you're joking, Damon, but we both know that's exactly what you're going to end up doing."

"Yeah...well..." He shrugged carelessly, moving on from it.

Behind Damon, she could see Elena and Jeremy in the midst of another argument where Jeremy was pissed at her. The words "Go to hell, Elena" crossed both Damon and Claire's hearing range, and Jeremy just stormed out after that. Elena sat down at the table at the Grill, completely exhausted from arguing. Claire shook her head at it. Damon could see her bite the inside of her cheek and run a hand through her hair frustratedly, and he realized what was going on.

"Do you remember my eighteenth birthday?" Damon asked suddenly, turning his head so that he wasn't facing Claire. But he could clearly see her eyes on him.

"Vaguely. Why?"

Damon crossed his arms. "Well, while you were talking to Stefan, I was talking to your sister. I remember her practically talking my ear off about what a wonderful person you were, like I didn't already know. You were...fifteen, I think. Amelia was ten, and she looked up to you like you were some kind of...goddess or something."

Things were silent for a long time before Claire scoffed. "Should I be worried? Damon Salvatore being sentimental? I think this might require a newspaper article."

Damon snorted. "Don't get too comfortable. I was just trying to make you feel better."

Claire narrowed her eyes. "What makes you think I feel bad?" she asked skeptically, and Damon now let his eyes wander over to her. He pursed his lips and shrugged.

"Well, don't you?"

Another silence ensued before Claire finally broke her gaze from Damon, sighed, and turned to the mopey Elena who was disappointed with her brother's behavior. "I just feel sorry for Elena. My personal opinion is that Jeremy's being way too rash, but I understand where he's coming from. Still, it makes me think of all the pointless fights I had with Amelia. Things that could've been avoided. That's why you frustrate me sometimes when you pick fights with Stefan that are useless."

"Claire, Stefan and I aren't the same as you and your sister were." Damon looked at her with heartless eyes. "We have our own problems that can't just be solved by...ignoring them or locking them away. It's just not possible with us."

She scoffed. "But, Damon, what's the point in living an eternity if you have no one to share it with?"

"I have plenty of people to share it with." Damon smirked. "Women, as a matter of fact."

Claire scowled. "You know that's not what I meant. Having someone to share it with isn't just limited to someone you're in love with." She kept eye contact with Damon, even though the elder Salvatore uncomfortably shifted and looked around the building. "One day, you're going to realize that Stefan's all you've got left."

Damon watched as Claire frowned at him and walked off to Elena at the table the human sat at and tried to help her through the rough time with Jeremy. With a frustrated sigh, Damon just turned and tried to push Claire's words out of his head as he left the Grill.

* * *

_When Clarissa woke, she woke gasping and panting, dripping with water. She was lying on the grass like before, but this time, she was sitting up straight as she came back to life. All she remembered was being drowned…once, twice, and finally a third time until it all went blank. Had she died? Did Katherine spare her? All she knew was that she was confused, wet, and…thirsty._

"_It would be wise for you to wonder why I didn't just kill you," a voice spoke, and Clarissa looked to the side to see Katherine again, this time with one of the townspeople by her side. The girl was just over sixteen and wasn't a Founding Family. Clarissa didn't know her name, but she'd seen the girl around. What was confusing to her was why she was there. "But I won't make you suffer with questions I can answer. You will die…eventually. However, I determined that it would be more fun if you suffered first." _

_Clarissa's hand came to her throat as she looked at the girl that was walking beside Katherine with bland, empty eyes. "What…what is she doing here?" Clarissa asked. _

_Katherine smirked. "You have to feed to complete the transition, of course. Then the real fun can begin." _

"_Transition?" Clarissa stood again, finding no weakness in her bones. Instead, she found agility she didn't know she had. "What…transition?" _

"_To become a vampire, you must feed," Katherine snapped impatiently. She gestured towards the girl. "On human blood." _

_Clarissa looked back and forth between Katherine and the human, shaking her head. "Vampire? I'm not a vampire. I don't…I don't want to _be _a vampire." The thought was almost laughable—vampires didn't exist, anyway. Katherine smiled. _

"_Good. Because you don't have a choice in the matter." Katherine spun the girl beside her around in her arms and Clarissa watched with fear as Katherine's face transformed into that of a demon's. Her eyes turned into bloodshot slits with veins that marked the skin underneath of them and inside her mouth appeared fangs that looked sharp enough to break skin. Sure enough, Katherine lunged forward and sunk her teeth into the human girl's flesh, and the human girl let out an unfiltered scream that Clarissa was sure would wake the entire town. Instead, no one seemed to hear them, and Katherine pulled away from the girl. She shoved the body to Clarissa, who had no choice but to catch the girl in her arms. Fresh blood marked the wounds on the girl's neck, and it was right at Clarissa's mouth. Katherine watched with victory as Clarissa struggled with herself. "Don't have me come over there, Clarissa. Drink it." _

_Clarissa tried—she tried so hard to defy Katherine's orders, but the blood was too powerful. It overcame her senses and scratched at her throat so that it was impossible for her to resist the urge to bend down and consume the droplets of blood. _

_That's what she did—she leaned down and licked away the blood that formed on the girl's neck, and it immediately sparked a frenzy within her. Clarissa could feel her face turn into something that felt like Katherine's looked, and her teeth elongated into fangs that were sharp enough to cut through skin. Bending down again, they did exactly that—and the blood from the human flowed freely into her throat. _

_No one stopped her—Katherine wasn't going to, and being a newborn, Clarissa didn't know how. The girl's screams were in her ears until Clarissa felt the life in her arms slow to the point where there was no heartbeat and no sign of any sort of human life. _

* * *

"Do you remember Barbados in '95?" Claire asked Stefan through her laughs as she, Stefan, Elena, and Christopher walked through the town square together reminiscing about old times as they waited for the fireworks. "And that naked guy on the bike who totally just _wiped _out and hit our windshield?"

Stefan snickered at the memory. "That was _not _a pretty picture."

"It really wasn't," Claire laughed, but her chuckle was short-lived when Elena looked to her side to see Damon holding her hand in his, cutting into the conversation. Elena raised an eyebrow at him.

"Err…Damon? What are you doing?"

"Saving your life. Fifteen words or less." Damon looked up at Claire, Christopher, and Stefan with serious eyes. "Tomb vamps are here. Founding Families are the target. Get her out of here. Now."

"Wait," Stefan stopped him as Damon tried to leave. "W-Where are you going?"

"That's more than fifteen words, Stefan!" Damon shouted as he fled the crowd. Claire shook her head, a bad feeling settling down deep in her stomach. She looked back at Stefan, who locked eyes with her.

"You handle Elena. I'm going after him." Stefan nodded immediately, silently thanking her for looking out for his brother.

"Claire," Christopher tried to stop her, but Claire was gone before he could get a second word out. He wanted to go after her as well, but Elena had proposed another problem—her brother was in the crowd. Seeing as Claire had taken off without a second thought to him, Christopher just sighed and let his wife leave.

Claire rushed up to Damon and touched his arm to capture his attention. Damon sighed at her. "I thought I told you to get Elena out of here."

"Stefan and Christopher can handle it. Where are we going?"

"To kick John Gilbert's _ass_. This guy is getting on my last nerve," Damon growled under his breath. Claire sighed.

"You and me both. But he's Elena's dad, remember?"

"I never said anything about killing him," Damon reminded her. Claire shrugged and they finally walked across the town square just as the fireworks began to start high up in the air.

This was a problem that Claire had not seen coming, and she had to admit that there was never a dull moment in Mystic Falls. Finally, the two ended up at Dr. Grayson Gilbert's old office building, to unsurprisingly find John inside. Damon shut the door, earning John's attention.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he asked John, who turned around at the intrusion and didn't bat an eye.

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I do." Damon sauntered forward to start his battle with the Gilbert, but instead, John just turned his hand and looked back at the two vampires who had ironically come to _him_. The second the invention clicked on, Damon and Claire both heard a piercing shrill in their heads and came to a halt. John listened with sick ears as he heard the sounds of Claire and Damon screaming while they grasped at the hairs on their head and dropped to the ground. The piercing sound ensued, strong enough to prevent them from doing anything else but screaming.

This gave John the leverage he needed to pull out two vervain-filled syringes and look down at the vampires on the floor. He knew that, on the other side of the door to his brother's office, all of the other vampires in Mystic Falls were being rounded up just the same. Without wasting the time that he had while the invention was still running. John stepped forward and injected both vampires in his presence with the vervain in the two syringes, causing them to stop their screams and fall completely unconscious for transport down to the basement.

* * *

"The device is done. The only thing keeping them down is the vervain," John informed the deputy that accompanied him down in the basement with all the vampires that were spewed across the floor. "We don't have much time. Let's finish this."

The deputy began to drown all of the vampires in gasoline, spreading it around so that it would eventually catch up to each and every vampire so they would all burn like they were meant to. On his way out of the basement, John Gilbert felt a hand wrap around his ankle, and he looked down to see a weak, desperate Anna panting on the floor.

"Anna," John realized as he stood over her. Claire stirred a few feet away from them, waking slowly from the vervain injection. She didn't have to move to see Anna and John in front of her since her body was turned that way. Her eyes were the only things that were able to move, and for that, she was grateful. There was no telling what the deputies would do to her if they knew she was awake. Claire watched as John looked at the deputy who was finished dosing most of the vampire with gasoline. "You can head up. I'll take it from here."

Anna grunted on the floor and tried to get up, but it was pointless—she was too weak from the vervain injection. Claire spotted John as he pulled out a stake from his back pocket and stood over Anna. Her face softened in realization of what he was about to do, and she could see Anna begin to protest from the floor.

"Please." Anna shook her head. John squatted down so that the stake would be level with her heart. "No!" But it was too late—John plunged the stake right into her heart, causing the vampire to arch as her undead heart came to a slow and her skin turned that greyish color that all vampire turned into once they died. Leaving the stake in her heart, John got up from his toes and grabbed the can of gasoline on his way out. Going backwards up the stairs, he spread the flammable liquid across each stair until he reached the top and lit a match, lighting the basement on fire. The orange color reflected in Claire's vision and she watched as all the vampires closer to the flames met their inevitable endings.

Finally finding the will to roll over, Claire found herself on her back with her head turned to the side. Damon was lying beside her, stirring himself with the faintest groan possible. She watched as his eyelids fluttered to an open position, and he muttered, "C-Claire."

"Damon," she whimpered, watching as the flames spread all around them. Damon's eyes flickered across the room to watch all of the flames jump higher at the ignition of the gasoline, but his attention was distracted when he saw Mayor Lockwood sitting up against one of the wooden poles trying to shield himself from the fire.

"Mayor," Damon groaned. "Is that you?"

"Claire? Damon?" Richard asked as he removed his hand from his face to see them. A trail of blood ran from his ear to his neck as if he had been internally bleeding. "What are you two doing here?"

"We're vampires," said Damon simply. The mayor's expression turned on a dime the second Damon confessed, and he looked as if he had seen a ghost. "What's your excuse?" Claire watched as the mayor tried to move away from them, but she shook her head.

"The vervain didn't affect you. You're _not_ a vampire."

Damon looked up at the mayor with confused eyes. "What the hell are you?"

But Mayor Lockwood had been too busy trying to get away from Damon and Claire, who wouldn't hurt them, that he found himself in the lap of a tomb vampire who instantly recognized the important Founding Family member. The tomb vampire smiled victoriously.

"Mayor Lockwood," he greeted before wrapping an arm around the mayor's neck. Richard struggled, but all it took was one large push until the mayor's neck was snapped in half, and the body fell limp on the vampire's lap. Damon and Claire's question went unanswered, not like it would've mattered.

"Oh, God…" Claire bellyached as she looked up at the ceiling, which was starting to glow orange. A tear escaped her eye as Damon looked over at her and saw her come to the same realization he had. "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. We're going to _die_."

"No…" Damon groaned as he forced himself up from the floor. "No, we're not. I'm…I'm gonna get us out of here."

"Damon…" she tried, but he wouldn't listen. He kept trying to get off the floor, as painful as it was under the effect of vervain, but a sound distracted him from his ultimate goal. A beam on the ceiling of the basement collapsed right beside Claire, the fire eating away at the wood like it was good food. Damon coughed weakly, and continued trying to get up from the floor. Seeing his struggle, Claire stopped him, unable to watch as Damon repeatedly sacrificed himself just to get them out. He would die if he went anywhere near the fire at the stairs, and she knew it. The fire was engulfing them and there was no way out of it. "Damon! Damon! Stop it! Stop it!"

Damon collapsed at last, unable to continue his pressure of heroism, and Claire shook her head at him. Damon's eyes connected with hers. "Bonnie…" he growled. She wanted to be angry, but there was no point to it. She knew Damon was thinking the same thing.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm so, so sorry, Damon. I really thought we could trust her."

"I know, Claire." Damon nodded against the floor. "I know."

* * *

_Christopher Fell returned from the town to the solitude of his own bedroom. He didn't speak much to anyone for the past two weeks—his wife had been taken from him in the middle of the night and everyone seemed to think that the Union soldiers kidnapped her out of spite. He hated the fact that her disappearance was being used as an excuse to further the water—Clarissa wasn't some pawn in a battle, she was his wife. And she didn't deserve to be remembered as the innocent victim who was kidnapped in her home as a wretched act of Union soldiers._

_He didn't want her to be a victim at all. He wanted her to show up and give him an excuse to why she left. The thought had crossed his mind that she left…she left _him_. Willingly. That she ran away because she was unhappy with him. He thought she had been happy, but things could change._

_Her family, devastated over her disappearance, decided that since no word had been spoken of her for almost two weeks, she deserved a proper burial. Christopher thought it was rushed—especially since they didn't know anything for certain—but he didn't get to make the decision. In everyone else's eyes, he was a lovesick husband who'd just lost his wife._

_The same had been done for Amelia when she had run away, even though it was blatantly obvious her departure was willing. The town chose to believe that their heir was dead rather than gone. So it wasn't a surprise that the Kings were planning it so quickly. It was starting to become a pattern, whatever the case may be._

_But that all changed in the moment when Christopher entered his bedroom and shut the door, only to find that Clarissa was sitting on his bed, staring at her hands that were folded in her lap. Her hair curtained her face, but he knew it was her. He would always know._

"_C-Clarissa?" he stuttered in disbelief. He heard her sob, and feeling as if it were his duty, he walked over to her and sat down on the bed, trying not to rejoice in her return. Reaching out, he swept her hair across her neck to reveal her flushed face covered in tears, and he gasped. "Darling, what's the matter? Where've you been?"_

_Clarissa looked over at him but just sobbed, refusing to say anything. She cried harder, for a reason that Christopher was unaware of. He watched in confusion, but jolted when another voice joined in his bedroom._

"_Tell him, Clarissa." Christopher looked beside him to find Katherine Pierce standing at the foot of their bed. "Tell him now."_

"_Miss Pierce," Christopher greeted, but he was deeply confused. Clarissa sobbed harder next to him, and he didn't know what was going on. Christopher turned to his wife. "Tell me what?"_

"_Christopher…" Clarissa sobbed, shaking her head. "I…I…"_

"_What is it, Clarissa? What is it?" Now the confusion had turned to sheer pain at the curiosity, but she just stared at him with bloodshot eyes. Christopher watched as her face transformed, and small veins appeared underneath her skin and her teeth barred, flashing a set of…_fangs. _Christopher gasped and jumped off the bed in surprise. "W-What is going on here?"_

"_She's a vampire, Mr. Fell," Katherine explained, victorious at the way Clarissa's husband looked at her—with fear. "A demon. A monster. The town thinks she's dead…and in some form, she is."_

"_I-I didn't have a choice," Clarissa cried, looking over at Katherine. "S-She _made _me this way."_

"_A vampire?" Christopher repeated, gulping down the scream of terror that threatened at his throat. "Y-You're a…a vampire?" He knew the town was after them; he had heard his father's meetings with the other Founding Families. Vampires existed, he knew that. But his wife? His wife was a vampire? That was something new, and something terrifying._

"_Please," Clarissa pleaded to him, sobbing again. "Please try to understand…"_

_Christopher swallowed, slowly taking it all in. His eyes flickered to Katherine, who stood with a triumphant smile, and he soon realized that she, too, was a vampire. The one who turned his wife, no less. Christopher wanted to scream and make the town aware of Katherine, but he didn't want to turn in his wife. For some strange reason, he found himself wanting to protect the blonde who sat on his bed, sobbing out of shame. It seemed that she was more terrified of him than he was of her._

"_Clarissa…" Christopher trailed off as he walked towards her with extreme caution. "Clarissa, I…I do understand. I do." He bent down so that she was looking down at him and he looked up at her. She looked at him and sucked in her cries, confused._

"_You do?"_

"_I do."_

"_You don't hate me?" she asked tentatively, almost scared as if he'd say that he did. But how could he? She was sitting right there, practically sobbing her eyes out at the off chance that he wouldn't accept her for what she was. Christopher had a feeling that there was more to this—that she wasn't just sobbing over him. Katherine loomed over her as if watching to make sure she didn't step out of line, and Christopher realized that Katherine was the one who was doing this—the one making her sob. It wasn't him._

_He shook his head firmly. "I don't hate you. I love you."_

_She nodded at him, but he could see the disappointment in herself that lined her eyes. "But…I'm a monster."_

_Christopher shook his head again in refusal. "Darling, you're not a monster. You're not a monster."_

_Beside them, Katherine's face turned red with anger. She looked between Christopher and Clarissa and tried to compose herself. "Fine. If he won't be afraid of you, then I suppose you two can't see each other."_

"_Katherine, please—" Clarissa protested, but Katherine yanked Christopher up from the floor and held him by his shirt collar._

"_Forget that you saw us tonight. Forget everything about me and forget about Clarissa. Your wife is dead and there is nothing that you can do about it." Katherine said while looking deep into Christopher's eyes. Clarissa watched her as she did this mind control trick, and it seemed to work._

"_I will forget that I saw you tonight. My wife is dead."_

* * *

Damon and Claire had laid in the midst of the fire in silence for the longest time, the two of them slowly realizing that their deaths would come very quickly and would be slow and painful. It was one thing to die; it was another to wait in anticipation. It was an extensive time before Claire finally turned her head to find Damon staring at her, and she bit down on her lip and looked down at his hand, which was just inches from hers. Slowly, she moved it over so that her hand was grasping his, and almost immediately, Damon pulled their fingers to lace together.

They were silent until Damon let out a sick chuckle. "Would you look at that?" He sighed. "Claire and Damon, holding hands. Hell _has_ frozen over at last."

Tears dotted at the corners of Claire's eyes as she laughed, finding relief in Damon's sick humor. Through a weak voice, Claire teased, "After everything, I guess it makes sense that we'd be the ones to die together." Another silence. "Damon?"

"Hmm?" His thumb subconsciously stroked the back of her hand, and she felt her heart shatter into a million little pieces as she realized that death was around the corner.

"I—"

Suddenly, Damon and Claire heard a _whoosh, _and they looked to the staircase to find Stefan and Christopher as they rushed down the stairs that had suddenly become escapable. The two heroic vampires rushed to the sides of the people most important to them, and while Stefan helped his brother up from the floor, Christopher swept Claire into his arms. Damon and Claire's hands broke off, and the two vampires immediately flashed out of the burning building as fast as they could. The flames grew behind them, though, sealing the rest of the vampires inside so none of them could escape their fate.

Claire and Damon were both coughing and groaning when Stefan and Christopher brought them out into the fresh air. The vampires were weak and half-dead, but they were luckily still alive. Christopher put his wife down on the ground and inspected her, trying to see if anything else was wrong other than the vervain.

"Claire? Claire, open your eyes. Look at me." Claire coughed and opened her eyes, finding the dimness of the night still too overwhelming for having been almost barbecued in a basement. Christopher sighed in relief and kept her upright in his arms while murmuring that she was going to be okay. The rest of the vampires inside the building perished, but Bonnie had managed to save the two that Elena actually cared about.

* * *

When all had died down about the fire, Claire felt that she owed it to Anna—who had been an honorary guest at her own wedding—to help Jeremy, who she knew Anna had been dating since Elena had told her earlier on at the Grill before everything happened with the fire. Also feeling that she owed it to Elena to fix whatever was going on with her brother since Elena was the primary reason she was saved earlier in the night, Claire found herself at the Gilbert house at Jeremy Gilbert's bedroom door. She didn't want to invade his privacy, so she knocked on the bedroom door and waited for him to turn around.

"Hi, Jeremy," she said, giving him a small smile. She wasn't really in the mood for fun and games since it'd only been an hour since she was almost killed, but she still managed to smile.

"Claire," Jeremy acknowledged, remembering her from the times they'd met. "What are you doing…in the house?"

"I'm…sorry," she apologized and gestured into the room. Jeremy nodded, and she stepped forward, crossing his bedroom threshold. "I don't mean to…overstep any boundaries or anything since we don't really know each other, but I thought you should know." Jeremy waited patiently as Claire swallowed and rubbed her hands, feeling sweat gather on them. She'd never had to tell someone that their girlfriend was dead. "Anna's…dead. I saw her die tonight."

Jeremy looked surprised, but regardless, he said, "I figured that once they took her away."

Claire nodded. "Elena told me that you cared about her. When I watched her die tonight, all I wanted to do was help her, but I…I _couldn't_."

Jeremy shook his head and swallowed. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Well, I know that…um, that Damon compelled you when your first girlfriend died. Vicki, right?" Jeremy nodded. "Well, I just wanted to try and see if you can understand where Elena's coming from. Sometimes, as older siblings, we make choices that may not always be the right ones. Mistakes. But no matter what mistakes Elena makes, it's important to forgive her for them eventually. Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned. You can wake up one day and she could be gone. Or...or, you could."

Jeremy cocked an eyebrow and Claire slipped a hand into her pocket as he asked her, "Do you have a sister?"

"I did," Claire told him immediately. He waited for her to elaborate. "She's dead now. Ran away from home when she was thirteen...I don't know why, though. Sometimes, I fear it had something to do with me. But...will you do me a favor? Just, see if you can _try _to forgive your sister? See if there's some part of you that understands inside?"

The two stood in silence until Jeremy hung his head and eventually nodded. He didn't say a word, and Claire knew she had gotten through to him, so she moved on.

"Uh…that's not really why I came, though. I thought I'd be the one to give you a choice this time," she admitted firmly. Jeremy raised an eyebrow at her in confusion. "Though Elena's intentions may have been pure…you _are_ right. It wasn't her decision to make. But…_I_ can take it away this time. If that's what you want."

Jeremy's eyes moved to the ground, and he sighed. "Look…I know that it might…_seem _like Damon took it away last time, but it's still _there_. Even if I can't remember why, I still feel empty. Alone. And making me forget won't fix it. It won't fix what's really wrong."

Claire stared at him, but she understood exactly where it was coming from. She nodded at him and gave the Gilbert a tight smile. "Like I said, Jeremy. It's your choice. I'm really sorry about Anna."

She turned to walk out of Jeremy's room, but before she could get more than three steps out, Jeremy called out to her, "Anna said that vampires don't have to feel pain. That they could turn it off if they shut out their humanity."

Claire turned back at him, and she realized that he was _asking _her, not telling her. Her head moved up and down. "It's true, vampires can shut out their humanity if they want."

"Is it easier that way?"

"Easier?" Claire repeated, confused. "Is…_what _easier?"

"Life," Jeremy clarified with a shrug. Claire stared down at the floor for a while, trying to come up with a good answer. Instead of giving a bullshit one that she knew was a lie, she just nodded.

"Life is…different when you don't have your humanity, Jeremy," Claire told him. "But I'm telling you…it still…_blows_. At least, if you're a vampire, there are times when you don't have to feel when you don't want to."

"Is that what you did?" Jeremy asked her. "When your sister ran away?"

"I wasn't a vampire then," Claire confessed, shaking her head. "But…if I had the choice? I would've turned it all off in an instant," she said honestly. "And life…would've definitely been a lot easier. For a while, at least."

This time, when she turned to leave the youngest Gilbert's room, he didn't stop her.

* * *

_It was her only chance to get away from Katherine, and she took it as quickly as she could. She was still strong enough from the blood she'd had the first night she became a vampire, but she knew she wouldn't be strong enough if she had to go head-to-head against Katherine. She also had found out that the light now burned her skin, so she had to wait until she timed it exactly right to escape. The door was locked, but after an hour of uninterrupted time to try and bend the lock, she was successful with it. Her feet carried her as far as they would go, and she found herself running through the town's cemetery for some odd reason. She kept looking behind her, even though she knew that Katherine had retired to the Salvatore house for the night, but she felt like she was going to get caught._

_It was when she ran right smack into a tree when Clarissa finally stopped and tried to catch her breath. She didn't know how to use her newfound vampire abilities, but she did know how to run._

_What surprised her, though, was when she took a second to catch her breath. She found herself staring right into a carved tombstone that read: Clarissa King, 1842-1865. Beloved wife, daughter, and friend. _

_A tombstone? For what? She wasn't dead, she was standing right there! Curious, she came out behind the tree and walked towards the tombstone, wondering who they buried beneath it. If her body wasn't in a coffin, who was? Why did they all think she was dead?_

_How long had she been gone?_

_When she heard a human heartbeat come into view, Clarissa knew that she couldn't be seen by anyone. If someone saw her, they could scream…and then she could get tossed into whatever prison Katherine had been keeping her in once more. She didn't know how she did it, but she managed to get from the tombstone back behind the tree in less than a second so that the human eye wouldn't be able to see her. From behind the tree, Clarissa couldn't help but watch as a human came out with freshly cut red roses in hand._

_What surprised her even more than all of this was who that human happened to be who came to a stop at her grave. It was…Damon._

_He put the flowers on her grave the second he reached them and then he knelt down in complete silence. Clarissa tried not to breathe too loudly, but as a vampire, the instinct came natural to her. She watched Damon in stealth, still surprised that he would even care enough to come to her grave in the first place. She had treated him so terribly over the years—kicking him out of the house, throwing things at him, leaving him at the pond by her house when he was clearly interested in something more, and even throwing him out of her wedding—that she felt like she didn't deserve a visit from him. He had every right to hate her. Truth was, she'd only done those things because it was her only option left._

"_They all seem to think that you're dead, somewhere. That the Union soldiers killed you like Katherine said." Damon hung his head and shook it, pursing his lips. "But I do not. I think you are very much alive. Or…well, I hope you are. This is an instance where I prey that Katherine is lying to us all. I never wanted you dead." Clarissa swallowed hard watching Damon as he clenched his fists so hard, his knuckles turned white. His eyes glistened over, and Clarissa felt her heart pain at it. Damon didn't cry—she knew he was trying not to, but he still looked like he was about to. "The truth is, Clarissa, I've loved you since we were kids. And there are no words to describe how much you hurt me when you rejected my love and married another man. But if having you back means having to suffer watching you with…Christopher Fell, I-I think I can manage it. I just…need to know you're okay."_

"_I'm not." Clarissa found herself saying. Damon jumped up immediately from the grave, looking around with widened, frightful eyes._

"_Who's out there?" Damon asked the empty night, and Clarissa bit down on her tongue to keep from saying anything else. Damon waited for a long time before finally whispering, "Clarissa?"_

_She thought she'd been made, but instead, Damon looked all around, trying to find her as if he was hoping she was there. Unable to bear seeing his pained expression anymore, Clarissa drew in a deep breath and revealed herself from hiding, making Damon's eyes turn as wide as the moon._

"_I'm not okay," she whispered brokenly. Damon could clearly see that from the mess of hair around her shoulders, the dirt that caked her face… "I'm not okay."_

_Damon sighed in relief seeing her, and his eyes projected a spark of hope. "But you're alive. You're…you're _alive. _I _told_ everyone that—"_

"_Damon," Clarissa stopped him, shaking her head. He paused, waiting for her to continue. "I'm…I'm not alive. I'm…" She gulped. "Dead."_

_The dark-haired boy scoffed in front of her. "But, Clarissa, you're right—" Suddenly, Damon stopped on his own, and Claire prepared to explain to him what she was. Instead, Damon surprised her yet again by saying, "You're…a vampire?"_

_She looked up at him, her eyes widening. "You aware of vampires?"_

_Damon nodded. "Katherine's a…" he trailed off again, slowly coming to the realization. His voice dropped to a whisper, "Did she…did she _turn _you?" Clarissa nodded. "Why?"_

_She desperately tried to keep herself together, but she couldn't handle it. A tear streamed down her face as she said simply, "You. She turned me because of you. Because you love me."_

_Silence filled the air until Damon finally sighed, "Oh, God. Clarissa…"_

_She didn't want him to say anything else, though. She didn't want to hear it. Terrified, she stepped forward and pulled her lips to Damon, trying to find something to hold onto. Damon tensed, surprised, but it only took a second for his instincts to break in and for him to kiss her back. She'd only kissed Damon once, but the fire was still there—the passion was blinding. Even undead, she felt a connection to Damon that she'd never felt with anyone before in her entire life. She kissed him with all she had left, exhausted of fighting for her life, but she knew that it couldn't stay this way. He couldn't remember this. If she wanted to get away from Katherine, no one could know she was still alive. Not even Damon._

_Clarissa pulled away, leaving both of them breathless, and Damon's hands came up to find hers on his face. His warm hands covered her cold ones, and he smiled just in the slightest._

"_I'm so happy that you're alive, Clarissa. Even if you are a vampire," he whispered. She held in a shaking breath and pulled away, her eyes opening. Carefully, she copied the movement and look that Katherine had made when using her mind-control on Christopher, and she said words that fought their way out of her mouth._

"_Forget that I was here," she instructed Damon, unaware of whether it would work or not. She waited and watched as Damon's pupils dilated._

"_I will forget that you were here," he repeated, his voice monotone. Claire stroked the back of his hand and smiled._

"_And move on."_

"_Move on," Damon repeated to himself, nodding. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, Clarissa had moved back behind the tree and watched as a confused Damon stumbled away from the graves, missing the last few minutes of his life._

_When Clarissa tried to move out from the tree to resume her escape, she felt someone come behind her and force her into the tree. Opening her eyes from the impact, Clarissa found an agitated Katherine with her vampire side showing right up in her eyes._

"_Nice try, Clarissa."_

* * *

When Claire opened the door to the Gilbert's front porch, she was surprised to find that Damon was walking up the stairs. She stepped outside and they both came to a halt as she shut the door behind her and walked out onto the dimly lit porch.

"What are you doing here?" Claire asked as Damon stepped up to get to level ground with her.

"I could ask you the same thing," he countered. Claire waited for him to answer first, and he eventually sighed in defeat. "Elena texted me a couple minutes ago. I was already on my way back to the house, so…"

"Oh." Claire shrugged. "Well, she's not inside. At least, I didn't see her in there." Damon nodded and waited for her to answer this time, and eventually she inhaled. "Right. I was…uh…trying to help Jeremy. I told him about Anna and asked him if he wanted me to do what you did."

Damon cocked an eyebrow. "What'd he say?"

"He said no; apparently, your compulsion didn't even help the first time. He wants to remember her." Claire slipped her hands into her back pockets.

There was a silence, a long one this time. The two avoided each other's gazes until Damon finally broke the ice, inhaling sharply. "You know…I came to this town wanting to destroy it…and tonight, I found myself wanting to protect it." They finally locked eyes, and Damon just smiled sourly. "How does that happen?"

"Self-evolution," Claire suggested quietly as Damon dropped his gaze. "Finally realizing that the world could use another hero rather than another villain?"

Damon practically laughed, shaking his head at the thought. "I'm not a hero, Claire. It's not…in me. That's reserved for Stefan…Christopher…Elena…_you_."

"You don't really…believe that, do you?" Claire asked, shifting uncomfortably. Damon's eyes moved up to capture her gaze, and she didn't tear her eyes away from him. The words were hanging right off her mouth: he _was _a hero, he just didn't know it yet. Instead of saying this, Claire found herself sighing. "Damon…"

"What were you going to tell me?" he interrupted her, as if the thought had been pushing at his mind and wouldn't stop until he found an answer. Claire tensed. "Before Stefan and Christopher came to rescue us, you were going to tell me something down in that basement."

Claire scrambled for words…for an excuse of some sort. Truth be told, she didn't know _what _she was going to say to Damon back when she was minutes away from dying, but she sure as hell knew that she didn't want to say the words that repeated in the back of her mind. Eventually, she just sighed. "I…was going to say that I was sorry."

"For Bonnie?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "You…already told me that, though."

"Not just for Bonnie." Claire shook her head. "For…for everything. Everything," she repeated, trying to make sure he understood. Damon and Claire kept their eyes on each other this time, neither one of them breaking contact. Damon was…surprised, to say the least, that she was actually _apologizing _for her actions the night that they first kissed. At least, that's what came to his mind when he wanted an apology. But he knew she was thinking the same thing.

"You know…" Damon trailed off, his voice quiet. He stepped forward, drawn like a magnet. "Sometimes, I wonder what it would've been like if we never kissed that night."

Claire remained quiet until she finally whispered, "I think it would've been the same, Damon. I wasn't…I wasn't _ready _back then."

"Ready?" Damon repeated, and she found herself closer to him than before. "Ready for what?"

Her eyes roamed across his features. "You," she said slowly, nodding once. "I wasn't…I wasn't ready for _you_." Silence enveloped them until Claire finally cleared her throat. "So…I guess I'm sorry."

Damon nodded at her. "I am, too."

A sad smile twitched at his lips before he leaned forward and kissed her cheek, something that was foreign to the both of them. But neither one of them moved or objected to it, they just stood there for a while until Damon pulled back hesitantly, now even closer to her. They didn't dare breathe or move or do anything of the sort to disrupt the moment that they were trapped in together. Claire could tell Damon was hesitant as he pulled back and stared at her lips, not wanting to ruin things for a second time by doing something that she didn't want. But she found herself actually…_wanting _it, for some reason that was unknown to every bone in her body.

With their eyes locked, Claire and Damon found themselves being somewhat pulled together, and Claire's hands reached up to hesitantly grip the collar of Damon's shirt just as they pulled their mouths together and melded into one bruising kiss without a single word. Since they were out in the open and were restricted, it was…different than the rest. Slower…hotter…deeper. Damon's hands moved up and tangled in the curls of her hair that were starting to fall flat, and his fingers didn't help that. The fabric beneath Claire's fingers almost ripped in half, but she made it a point to loosen her grip when she realized this. Despite her caution, Damon crushed her against him, leaving no space between their bodies as they stood just on the edge of the first stair.

It was a little strange, actually kissing after so many years of avoiding it, but it…worked, somehow. Damon's tongue brushed across her lower lip and she complied, opening her mouth to him and giving him complete access. It wasn't like their typical war; this was mutually serving. It was also wrong_, _plain and simple, considering that Claire had just tried to convince her husband not even a day ago that Damon meant nothing to her. There was no excuse in the world to make up for her actions, but she just couldn't help it. For some reason, some inexplicable reason, she was not able to shake Damon Salvatore from her life. Despite them being tied together by Stefan, they were tied by much more. Hatred; lust. Whatever they wanted to call it, there was something _there._

But the fact that they had been kissing on someone else's porch was bound to get in the way, and it turned out to be the only thing that stopped them from taking it a step further. Someone cleared their throat, and Damon and Claire pulled away and turned to find Elena walking up the pathway to her house, a peeved expression at the two making out on her porch. Damon and Claire looked at each other, flushed, but then looked back at Elena.

"Um…hey…Elena." Claire coughed, trying to pretend like she hadn't been making out with Damon in front of her best friend's girlfriend.

Elena gave her a tight smile and looked back and forth between the two vampires. "Claire. Damon."

An awkward silence passed between the three until Damon inhaled sharply. "Um…Elena, you texted me? Said to meet you here?"

Elena looked at Claire and just returned that tight smile. "It's…not really important now, I guess."

Damon looked at Claire just as she looked at him, and they realized what a mess they'd gotten themselves into. All the people they lied to, they would know now. But instead of panicking, Damon and Claire tried to be calm about the situation and ride it out. "Uh, okay. I guess I'll just…go…"

With another glance back towards Claire, Damon stepped around Elena as he walked down the porch and Elena walked up with her dress in hand. Claire hitched her thumb to the open night. "Do you want me to go, too?"

Elena shook her head as she put her stuff down. "No. No, it's okay. You can stay." She crossed her arms having her hands free and looked off into the direction that Damon went. "So…you and _Damon_?"

"I…um…" Claire scoffed, burying her head in her hands. She began to laugh. "Oh…my _God. _What am I _doing_?" She took her hands off of her face and looked at Elena with wide eyes. "I am _such _a terrible person, aren't I? I just kissed…_Damon_."

"Yeah…you _kissed _Damon, all right." Elena snorted. Claire bit down on her lip in shame. "But…Claire…I think, before you start jumping into things…that you really need to know something first. It's been bothering me and, I've wanted to tell you for a while, but…"

When Elena trailed off, Claire raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Elena looked up at her with guilty eyes. "Claire, do you remember how Damon said Sheriff Forbes killed Lexi?"

Claire nodded and crossed her arms. "Yeah. Why?"

"Because he lied to you," Elena said flatly, but her tone was still apologetic. "And it's been eating me up inside, but…but I _needed_ to tell you. It wasn't Sheriff Forbes who killed her, it was him. It was Damon."

Claire stared at Elena for a long time before she scoffed and shook her head in denial. "What? Elena, that's not true. Y-You were there. Damon _told _me that he wasn't lying. That he wasn't the one who killed her."

"I'm sorry, Claire." Elena swallowed. "But it's true."

"Elena—" Before Claire could get the word out, the front door of the Gilbert house swung open to reveal Jenna, who looked at Elena with relief.

"Oh. Good. Elena, you're home." Jenna turned her head to Claire and gave her a small smile. "Sorry, Claire. But it's late." Jenna looked at Elena again. "You should come inside."

"Yeah. Sure," Elena agreed, nodding. She peeked at Claire, who was still shell-shocked from Elena's confession, but Elena just frowned. "I'll…see you later, Claire."

The blonde vampire didn't respond. Instead, she just stood, frozen, on the porch as Elena walked inside of the Gilbert house and Jenna shut the door. The wheels in her head were spinning violently, and she couldn't help but wonder if it were true.

Inside of the Gilbert house, Elena stepped through the threshold with her back turned to Jenna and a vindictive cat-like smile spreading like a disease across her lips.

* * *

"_I looked everywhere," _Elena grumbled over the phone Stefan held up to his ear. Stefan looked both ways to watch for incoming cars before he walked out onto the road to cross the street from the Mystic Grill. The Founder's Day drama had long since passed, and he had sent Christopher home after talking to him briefly to not worry about Claire. Stefan was convinced that they could make it work.

Raising his eyebrows in confusion for his girlfriend, Stefan replied, "What do you think, someone stole it?"

_"Yeah. Someone definitely took my stuff."_

"Do you want me to pick you up?" he offered politely. Elena sighed, but it wasn't a sigh of relief. The words were practically in her exhale.

_"I just__ gotta check on Jeremy before I go to the hospital. Can you meet me there?_"

"You bet," Stefan sung with a smile on his face, trying to be chipper after such a dark night. Damon and Claire almost dying really did a number on him, more so than it affected Claire's husband. Elena chuckled lightly.

"_Okay. I love you, Stefan."_

"I love you, too," Stefan agreed as they both mutually hung up the phone. Stefan unlocked his car as he stepped beside it so that he could get inside and go to the hospital. Apparently, during the time that the vampires were being rounded up in the town square, Tyler, Matt, and Caroline had all gotten into a car accident, and while Tyler and Matt were somewhat fine, Caroline had been severely injured. It was a human problem, but a problem nonetheless.

As Stefan opened the car door to climb inside, he heard a familiar voice behind him. A voice that shouldn't have existed.

"Hi, Stefan."

Stefan turned around to face a petite, blonde, breathtakingly gorgeous girl that looked not a day older than seventeen when she was really supposed to be 163. His breath shook as if he were seeing a ghost—and in a way, he was.

"Amelia?"

* * *

**It's The Vampire Diaries. No one ever stays dead. So, Christopher and Claire are still on the outs, Damon and Claire almost died and actually ended up _kissing, _Katherine told Claire the truth about Lexi, and Amelia paid a surprise visit to Stefan. 2x01 should have flashbacks of Amelia pertaining to why the hell she ran away in the first place. Be forewarned: Next chapter will be another _long _chapter. But 2x02 isn't that bad.**

**Thanks for reading! Review if you can, please! I hope this finale chapter lived up to the expectations :)**


	15. The Return

**Sorry this chapter is so long. I was actually thinking about not updating it until next week, but I was talked out of it. Again, sorry for the length of this chapter, a lot of shit just happened to go down.**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Return**

**Mystic Falls, 1860**

"_Mother, I don't like Mr. Gilbert's house," complained a thirteen-year-old Amelia in the nicest, most mature manner for her age. "Why can't I go to the party with the rest of you?" _

"_Because this is an adult party, Amelia. Besides, Stefan won't be there," Marianne assured her, knowing exactly what her young, ambitious daughter was thinking. Amelia frowned to herself. _

"_Surely Mr. Salvatore will be attending this 'adult party', correct? If Stefan isn't attending, we could keep each other company." __  
_

"_Amelia,__ since Clarissa and Damon are no longer getting married, we have no right to be asking Mr. Salvatore's boys to be taking care of you. Mr. Gilbert offered." Marianne knocked on the Gilbert's door promptly and waited for the door to be answered._

_Amelia didn't want to say what she had been thinking—Michael Gilbert scared her. He drank too much, he slurred his words, and she thought he was a complete pig. Growing up in a household dominated by women, Amelia didn't understand why the Gilbert household was so messy and unclean. To a thirteen-year-old who was just starting to become a lady, that was considered to be scary. _

_Sure enough, Michael Gilbert answered the door with a glass of alcohol in his hands. He saw Marianne and her daughter at the door and he smiled at them politely. _

"_Mrs. King," he greeted, slurring his words. Amelia flinched as he looked down at her and smiled again. Shudders ran down her back. "Lovely Amelia. Come in, make yourself at home." _

_Marianne pushed her daughter through the threshold without much of a choice, and Amelia wrinkled her nose at the look of the unkempt household. Back at the threshold, Marianne's voice dropped to a whisper. "Thank you, Michael, for taking care of her while we have the Council meeting. Clarissa was unavailable." _

"_It's no problem, Mrs. King. Your daughter is lovely company." _

"_Thanks again, Michael," Marianne smiled at him before turning, leaving her daughter in the care of the drunk, Michael Gilbert. Everyone knew he drank the day away, but no one actually believed that he was harmful. When Michael shut the door, he turned back to Amelia and smiled at her. _

"_So, Amelia…" Michael trailed off with a smirk that made Amelia's insides lurch. "How would you like to play a game with me?" _

* * *

Claire didn't care that she slammed the fire cabinets shut so loudly that the deputies outside could, no doubt, hear the intrusion. File cabinet after file cabinet, she rummaged through all the folders to try and find the one that mattered—the vampire folder. The one that would tell her if Elena was lying or not. The one that would tell her if _Damon _was lying or not. She went through them ruthlessly; not even bothering to close some of them as she hastily checked all the cabinets at laser-speed. Eventually, she came to the bottom right cabinet to find that it was locked when she pulled the handle open.

_Bingo. _

With a simple flick of the wrist, Claire had the cabinet sliding open into her grasp, and she looked inside to find files upon files detailing every vampire encounter that Sheriff Forbes had ever seen. Those files were not to leave her eyes, obviously, but Claire needed to see them. She needed to know the _truth_.

Page after page, she flipped through to find the file that matched the date of Stefan's birthday—the day Lexi had been killed. After only a minute of looking through the files, Claire finally rose to her feet when she found the vampire report of her blonde friend that she had spent decades with.

_Male was killed at the Mystic Grill by a vampire. Female had witnessed and had pointed out the vampire to myself and the deputies. The vampire was then escorted out of the Mystic Grill, but attacked the deputies. Damon Salvatore intervened and killed the vampire with a wooden stake to the heart. Vampire was blonde, female…_

Claire shut the folder with shaking hands, unable to read any more of it. Her hand went to her mouth and she wiped the dry skin as she sank down to the floor where the rest of the folders sat.

Damon lied to her, plain and simple. He flat-out lied to her about Lexi's death. It wasn't Sheriff Forbes who drove the stake through her friend's heart.

_It was Damon. _

* * *

Amelia King stood in front of Stefan Salvatore with her lip between her teeth, trying to control what she said and when she said it desperately. She'd never been good at keeping her speech under control; people always said she rambled on too much and said things she wasn't supposed to. It was a habit that could be derailed by biting down on her lip so she would have an obstacle to get around. Amelia watched as Stefan stared at her, completely shell-shocked.

"Amelia?" he breathed out, looking over her dozens of times to see if she was actually real. She didn't blame him—if she wasn't there, she wouldn't have believed it, either. It had been _so _long. "W-What are you…how are you…?" Stefan swallowed and his eyes met hers. "_Alive_?"

"I think that should be pretty obvious," scoffed Amelia, who shrugged listening to the question. Stefan shook his head in disbelief. Amelia hesitated a second before finally replying, "I'm a vampire, Stefan. Just like you and Damon are. Claire, too."

"But…but _how_? Who turned you?" Stefan urged. Amelia let out a nervous breath.

"Stefan, I can't—"

"When were you turned? What _happened _to you after you left, Amelia? I don't, I don't under—"

Before Amelia could open her mouth and answer all of Stefan's bombarded questions, Stefan felt his phone vibrate in his hand, causing him to stop the conversation and look down at it. It was Elena on the Caller ID, but Stefan couldn't think about that right now. He looked up to get answers from his long-lost friend, only to find that the beautiful blonde vampire had escaped him. Stefan's phone vibrated again, and this time, he didn't hesitate to answer it.

Picking up the phone, Stefan rubbed his head. "Hey…Elena, what's—"

"_Stefan, it's Jeremy..." _Elena trailed off nervously, practically stuttering. Stefan knew that Amelia coming back was strange and direly important, but he couldn't think about that when Elena was asking him to come over to her house to check on Jeremy because of something that happened. But with every passing moment that Stefan spent thinking to himself, all he could think about was how Amelia King was _alive. _

It just seemed…surreal. And it also seemed like it was going to bring trouble.

When Stefan arrived at the Gilbert household, he watched John Gilbert get taken away on a stretcher that was sprinkled in John's blood. The deputy at the door prevented Stefan from coming inside until Elena spoke behind them at the top of the staircase.

"He's okay." Stefan raced up the stairs as soon as the deputy at Elena's door let him pass, and Elena met him and showed him to Jeremy's room.

"What happened?" the younger Salvatore asked.

"He said that Anna gave him her blood and then he took these pills," Elena explained as she showed Stefan the empty bottle of pills. "A-And now, I-I mean…he looks fine, but then again, so do you. So I just—I don't know."

Stefan tossed the pill bottle onto the bed and reached forward to grab Jeremy's face. "Come here. Look at me."

Jeremy tried to jerk out of his grasp. "No. I'm _fine, _okay? I feel exactly the same!"

"Should I call a paramedic up here? What should I do?" Elena interrogated. Stefan looked at Jeremy with intent, trying to determine whether or not he was in the transitional stage. Eventually, he shook his head.

"No. He's fine." Stefan straightened and Elena sighed in relief while a look of disappointment crossed Jeremy's face.

"You mean I'm not a vampire? Damn it," he cursed under his breath. Elena looked back at him, shocked.

"Don't say that! Jeremy…Jeremy, why would you want that?"

With his eyebrows knotted, Jeremy rose from his bed to tower over his sister. "Did you hear about Anna? What happened to her tonight?" Elena shook her head. "She's dead."

"Jeremy." Stefan rushed over to him and forced him back down on the bed with his cold hands around his girlfriend's brother's face. "Jeremy. Come here, sit down. I am very sorry about Anna, but it's very important that you listen to me right now! With every passing moment, Anna's blood is leaving your system. If you tried to kill yourself right now, you could really _die_!" But Stefan could clearly see that Jeremy wasn't paying attention, so he slapped the kid lightly on his face just enough to earn his respect. "Hey! Do you understand me?"

"Stefan…" Elena trailed off behind him; worried about the intensity Stefan was exhibiting on her brother. Jeremy just nodded at Stefan.

"Yeah. I understand."

"Good." Stefan straightened with a playful smack to Jeremy's cheek. He realized that he might've gone too far, but so much was on his mind at the moment that he wasn't really thinking straight. A million questions raced in his thoughts and his mind was on overdrive. Stefan didn't know what to do or what to say. Especially when it came to Claire.

"What the hell is going on?" The blonde vampire interrupted, walking into Jeremy's room and capturing the attention of the trio inside. Claire's eyes landed on Elena. "You left me a voicemail saying that I needed to come over ASAP?"

"Jeremy tried to turn," Stefan informed her, gesturing to the teenager on the bed. He decided that it wasn't time to share his information with her. With Jeremy, with John, with Caroline, and all the other things that had happened, it just wasn't a good time. Claire widened her eyes and turned to Jeremy.

"What? Are you kidding me?" She rushed over to Jeremy and looked down at him with a cold, hard stare. "Is that why you were asking me all those questions about vampires turning off their emotions? Because you wanted to know about it when you _became_ one? For God's sake!" Claire looked at Elena and Stefan. "He's fine, right?" Stefan nodded and Claire sighed in relief. "Good."

"What about the pills that he took?" While Stefan paced, Elena looked down at her brother worriedly. Stefan shook his head.

"He didn't take enough to die. So Anna's blood actually…_healed _him of that."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the kid brother's door. Everyone turned to see the deputy waiting for her with an arched eyebrow. "Ms. Gilbert?"

"Um, I'll be right there."

"You need to go to the hospital," Stefan insisted, shaking his head.

Claire scoffed. "What, for John? I saw the ambulance outside taking him away. He'll be fine."

"No, Caroline, Tyler, and Matt got into a car accident," Elena blurted out, causing Claire to widen her eyes at the new information. Elena turned back to Stefan. "But I can't—"

"No, no, I'll stay here with Jeremy." Stefan looked up. "Claire, can you take her?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"No. No, I don't need a babysitter," Jeremy protested on the bed. Elena just sighed and looked down at him condescendingly.

"Yes, you do."

* * *

"Bonnie!" Elena called, getting the witch's attention in the midst of the busy hospital. Bonnie turned around to face her friend and the blonde vampire that accompanied her. Claire was trying to push all thoughts of Damon out of her mind in fear of literally ripping out the throats of everyone around her in all-consuming blind _rage_. "How's Caroline?"

"She's weak." Bonnie nodded with a sorrowful expression. "They don't know if she's going to make it."

Elena stood, frozen at the words, until she whispered under her breath, "What?" Bonnie leaned forward and gave her a hug. "Is there something that you can do?" Bonnie pulled back. "Like…like a spell or something?"

"She doesn't know how," a new voice said, and Claire gritted her teeth when she recognized the voice. While everyone turned to face Damon, Claire avoided his gaze at all costs. Damon looked at the witch. "Do you?"

"No. I don't," Bonnie confessed.

"No. You don't. Because it took Emily _years _to learn a spell like that." The annoyance in his tone was unmistakable. Damon was furious with Bonnie for lying to them about the Gilbert device, that was no secret. However, since she had saved him, he decided not to kill her. Claire, on the other hand, who was probably just as furious, had bigger problems to deal with than the lying word of a Bennett witch.

"Oh, well I can take down a vampire. That spell was easy to learn," the witch snapped back. Damon turned to the shaken Elena and dropped his voice to a murmur.

"I can give Caroline some blood."

"No." Elena shook her head immediately in protest. "No way."

"No, no, no, just enough to heal her…she'll be safe in the hospital…it'll be out of her system in a day," Damon reasoned, trying to ease some of Elena's worries. "She'll be better, Elena!"

"It's too risky. I can't agree to that," Elena objected.

"Do it." The agreement surprisingly came from Bonnie. This immediately captured the attention of both Damon and Elena in the midst of their argument in absolute surprise. Bonnie looked at Elena. "This is _Caroline_. Okay? We can't let her _die_."

"It's a bad idea," Claire sung, her voice high-pitched. Damon looked at her in confusion, and she stared right back at him coldly. "Problem is, they can't _trust _you, Damon. If anyone's going to do this, I will."

Damon raised his eyebrows at her, but Bonnie looked back and forth between Damon and Claire. "I don't care who does it, just take care of it."

The peeved witch turned on her heel and walked off, leaving Elena, Claire, and Damon by themselves. The second Bonnie was gone, Damon turned his attention to the pissed-off blonde vampire in front of him.

"They can't _trust _me? What's that supposed to mean?"

Claire hummed sourly. "Mm…I don't know. Elena, what do you think that meant?"

Elena cocked an eyebrow. "That...we can't trust him?"

"It meant that you're a selfish, heartless vampire _liar," _the blonde snapped at Damon, who widened his eyes in complete and utter confusion at her hurtful exchange of words. A thousand thoughts had been racing through his head, but the idea that Claire would be _mad _at him wasn't one of those thoughts.

"What the hell are you talking about, Claire? Is this about...what _happened _earlier tonight?"

"What happened _earlier _meant absolutely nothing! And it will _never, _ever happen again!" Claire spat, trying to keep her tone to a whisper. Elena, who was caught in the middle of it all, just held up her hands.

"Hold on a second, what happened earlier?" she asked. Claire scoffed as Damon turned to Elena with irritated eyes.

"Come on, Elena. We appreciate you pretending like it didn't happen, but it _did_." Damon's eyes cut to Claire and burned. "We kissed, Claire. And don't you _dare _think that you have a right to be angry with me because of it." _  
_

"I _do _have a right to be angry!" Claire almost shouted. "I wish it never happened in the first place!"

"You guys _kissed_?" Elena gasped, looking back and forth between them with wide, stunned eyes. "W-What? _When_? Where?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Elena? Don't play dumb. You saw us."

Elena pursed her lips. "No…no, I didn't."

Claire nodded at her. "Yeah, you did. Because after Damon left, you _finally _told me the truth about Lexi." She turned to Damon, who was slowly coming to the realization upon her words. "I know, Damon. I know you killed her. Elena told me and I broke into the Sheriff's office and confirmed it."

Damon took in a deep, agitated breath before he looked at Elena with eyes that let the human know he was about to lunge at her. Elena stood, baffled at being accused of things that she had no recollection of. "You _told _her about Lexi, Elena? Are you _insane_?"

"Don't get mad at her!" Claire snapped angrily. Damon looked back. "You should've been the one to tell me! You shouldn't have lied!"

"I _had_ to lie! You would've hated me!"

"Yeah! I would've! But now I _detest _you!"

"Claire," Elena intervened, shaking her head. "I _really _didn't—"

"Elena!" The trio turned to watch Jenna rush up to them, interrupting their conversation. She eyed Damon and Claire in the background and continued without a hitch. "I came as soon as I got your message. How's John?"

"Where've you been?" Elena demanded, earning Jenna to blink at her in disbelief.

"At…the fire department. I had to fill out a report," Jenna said slowly, trying to get Elena to recall the message. Elena just stared at her with puzzled eyes, causing Jenna to sigh. "I _told _you earlier—"

"No, you didn't," Elena interrupted her, shaking her head at the false accusation.

Jenna nodded. "Yes, I did."

"No, Jenna. You didn't."

Damon and Claire watched as Jenna and Elena argued over something that seemed so pointless, but was actually serious. "Yes, I did," Elena's guardian repeated.

The two vampires behind them shared a glance, and the two came to the very same conclusion at the same time.

"Oh, shit," Claire murmured under her breath.

At the same time, Damon sneered, "Mm…you've got to be _kidding _me!"

* * *

Stefan stood over Jeremy, who was sleeping off the vampire blood in his system. He paced back and forth somewhat like a guard, but it was when the door creaked open downstairs that Stefan left his post at Jeremy's bed to greet Elena, who had walked into the house with a frown on her face. As soon as Stefan reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned to face Elena.

"Hey. How's Caroline?" Stefan moved closer to her. Elena shook her head at him.

"Not good." She reached forward and pulled him into a hug, which Stefan returned immediately. They folded into each other, but Stefan couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong. He was trying to place a finger on it when Elena murmured into his shoulder, "Just what I needed."

Elena pulled back to face Stefan, and her eyes locked with his. Stefan's eyebrows knotted together as he saw something that he had only seen in _one _person before. When Elena moved forward to kiss him, Stefan reached forward and yanked on her hair, pulling her back with his fangs elongated in attack.

It wasn't Elena; it was Katherine.

With an animalistic growl, Stefan tossed Katherine down into the living room and the dark-haired vampire refurbished quickly, standing up to face Stefan head-on.

"Katherine," Stefan snarled.

The vampire shrugged. "At least I fooled your brother and his bitchy girlfriend." Stefan flashed forward with his hand wrapped around Katherine's throat and pinned her to the closest wall to the left of the house. He growled again, but Katherine didn't flinch. Instead, she sighed. "Feel better?"

Again, Stefan growled, and he flashed her over to the opposite wall with as much force as he could manage, but he was soon distracted when the sound of a key turning entered his hearing range. Using this distraction as leverage, Katherine pulled Stefan's arm and twisted it back so she flipped the younger Salvatore down on the ground with a groan. Stefan fixed his arm just as Katherine fled the scene, and when Claire, Damon, and Elena stepped into the household, he rose from the floor.

"Stefan?" Elena asked him.

"Elena."

"What happened?" she asked, looking around her house for any sign of trouble. Damon and Claire wouldn't tell her what was going on in the car ride over to the house, so she was completely clueless. Damon looked around knowingly, almost appreciative.

"Katherine happened."

"Ding dong," Claire sung dramatically, biting the inside of her cheek in rage. "The wicked _bitch_ of the west is back."

* * *

"Did she say what she wanted?" Damon asked his brother as Stefan paced in Elena's kitchen worriedly. Claire walked into the kitchen with Christopher by her side, talking with him about how Katherine had returned, when Stefan responded.

"No."

Damon groaned. "Well she certainly knows how to make one _hell _of a goddamn entrance," he murmured to himself. Stefan continued pacing, trying to figure Katherine out based on his memory of her words.

"She said she fooled you and your 'bitchy girlfriend'…whom, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say is Claire." Stefan knotted his eyebrows together and tried to put the pieces together. "What does that—what does that mean?"

"She pretended to be Elena with us, too," Claire spoke up, sitting down with Christopher at Elena's dining table. "When we were here earlier tonight."

"She told Claire about Lexi," Damon growled underneath his breath. Claire inhaled sharply, her knuckles turning white from clenching the oak dining table so hard.

"And that is about the _only _thing I will _ever _thank Katherine Pierce for doing!" she barked.

Stefan turned around at her. "Claire…"

"You knew, too, didn't you?" Claire asked him, her words cutting into him like a knife. Stefan nodded eventually, not willing to lie again. "God _damn _it, Stefan!"

"I told Jeremy," Elena interrupted, causing the conversation to halt as she came into the kitchen and looked around at all the vampires crowding her. "I can't lie to him anymore."

From the dining table, Christopher looked up at the human. Seeing her paleness, he expressed concern. "Elena? Are you all right?"

Elena shook her head. "No, I'm not all right. I thought that, with all the tomb vampires gone, things would get _better_."

"I know. We all did," Stefan agreed, walking over to Elena.

"Katherine was in this house," the human realized slowly as Stefan put a hand on the small of her back comfortingly. Elena looked at everyone else in the room with worry. "Which means that she's been invited in. What are we going to do?"

With a bitter smile, Damon suggested, "Move."

Elena frowned at him. "Very helpful. Thank you."

"Katherine wants you dead, there's _zero _you can do about it—you will be dead. But you're not. So, clearly, she has other plans," Damon pitched, reasoning with Katherine's logic.

"So how do we figure out those plans?" Christopher asked, looking around the room. Stefan shook his head.

"I don't know. But we can't provoke her in the process." A silence ensued around all of them as they thought about what an inconvenience Katherine coming back to Mystic Falls was, but Stefan spoke again to interrupt the silence. "Claire…there's something that I need to tell you."

Claire huffed. "If it's an apology—which I fully expect from you for lying to me—it can wait, Stefan. We have bigger problems to handle."

Stefan shook his head. "No. No, it's not an apology, Claire. Not yet, anyway. I think I know someone who might know Katherine's plans."

Everyone—including Elena—looked over at him. Christopher was the one to speak when Stefan fell silent. "Well, come on, Stefan. Don't keep us waiting. Who?"

Stefan tried to figure out how to say it—what the most appropriate way to drop the bomb that Claire's sister was still alive. Eventually, he ended up flat-out saying, "Amelia."

Claire scoffed. "Great. You have an Ouija board or something we can use?" She frowned at Stefan and crossed her arms, annoyed at the waste of time. "Stefan, she's _dead. _Or in some record book because no one lives to be 163-years-old."

"Claire, she's not dead," Stefan assured her. Claire blinked at him. "I saw her, earlier tonight. She's a vampire. Turned at seventeen, maybe."

This made Claire's skin turn paler than it already was. "B-By _who_?" Stefan shook his head in a confession that he didn't know.

Elena looked up at Claire. "Wait…so your sister's _alive_?"

Damon smirked over by the center island in Elena's kitchen. "Oh…not just Claire's sister, Elena. Stefan's childhood _crush_." Stefan hung his head as Damon spoke the words, and Elena looked up at her boyfriend to assess the merit of Damon's accusation. The elder brother continued mercilessly. "That's right, Stefan. Don't think I forgot about all the notebooks filled with 'Mrs. Amelia Salvatore' written all over them. It was gross, actually, since she was originally supposed to be your sister-in-law."

"I'm sorry…but can we move back onto the subject of how Amelia is _alive_?" Claire scoffed, completely shell-shocked at the news. She looked at Stefan with wide eyes. "Why did she come and see _you_? Did she know about me? That I'm here or…?"

"She knows you're a vampire," Stefan told her, nodding a few times. "But as for why she came to see me first—"

"Mrs. Amelia Salvatore," Damon commented, answering the question with his quip. Everyone turned back to him, and he shrugged. "What? We all know it's the truth."

"But how is this supposed to lead us to Katherine's plans?" Christopher stood up, looking at Stefan and ignoring Damon like everyone else had. "Can you contact her again? Where'd she go after you saw her?"

"I-I don't know. Elena was calling me, so I looked down…when I looked back up, she was gone."

"Well, great." Damon scoffed. "So that settles that. Amelia's not helping us."

"John must know something," Elena suggested, trying to come to a logical conclusion. "There has to be a reason why Katherine tried to kill him."

"She's Katherine!" Damon exclaimed, rolling his eyes as a smirk played on his lips. He walked across the kitchen to the exit and spun around to lean against the doorframe. "She _loves _to play games, and you're _fooling _yourself if you think you're going to find out what she's up to before she wants you to know."

"No, actually, Elena's right. John could know something through Isobel," Stefan voiced, throwing a stare at Damon. He looked down at Elena and explained, "Your mother, she was in touch with Katherine…so maybe we can go to the hospital and talk?"

"I've got a better idea," Damon mumbled.

"Well, then, enlighten us," Christopher suggested, turning around at Damon. The elder Salvatore shrugged carelessly.

"I'm just going to ignore the _bitch_…" Damon smirked as he turned to walk out. "See ya."

"I-Is that smart?" Elena stuttered, stopping him from leaving. Damon turned around at her with his arms crossed over his chest.

"If Katherine thinks she's being ignored, it'll lure her out. She'll make a move."

"Yeah? Then what?" Stefan prompted.

"Stake her, rip her head off…" Damon shrugged. "Something poetic. We'll see."

* * *

_Amelia knocked on Clarissa's door late at night when they were supposed to be asleep. But she knew, from experience, that her sister was never asleep at their given bedtime. She always stayed up, unable to rest, until her body finally gave out and let her close her eyes._

"_Clarissa…" Amelia whispered lowly as she entered the room. "Are you asleep yet?"_

_The response came slow, but it came, at least. "No, Amelia. Come in." Amelia stepped into her sister's bedroom without having to be asked twice, and Clarissa lit a candle on the nightstand so that they weren't sitting in complete darkness. Amelia came into the room and climbed into the bed, sighing. "Is something the matter?"_

_Amelia shook her head tightly, afraid to say what she wanted to. Instead, she just sat in silence until she could feel Clarissa start to impatiently wait, almost as if wondering why her presence was mandatory. Truth be told, Amelia just wanted time with her sister. Ever since Michael Gilbert's house, the only person she felt safe with was Clarissa._

"_Clarissa…" Amelia trailed off, biting down on her lip. "I have a question."_

_The older sister twisted her hair around her finger and laid back against the pillow, smiling in dim light. "What is it, Amelia?"_

"_What does it mean when you don't menstruate?" Amelia asked suddenly, causing shock out of Claire. Immediately, Amelia amended her statement, "Hypothetically, of course. I'm just curious." _

_Clarissa chuckled under her breath, almost laughing at the question because she knew Amelia's curious mind had probably thought it all up on her own. Eventually, Clarissa's laughter died down. Amelia was still frowning in the soft candlelight, displeased with her sister's humorous response._

"_I'm sorry, Amelia. It's just…when a woman misses that time, it's because she's pregnant—with child, that is. It's something you won't have to worry about for a very long time, trust me." Her lips curled into a smile and she patted the space beside her. "Come on. Sleep in here if you want."_

_Amelia nodded meekly before she laid down on the bed and Claire pinched the candle out beside her bed. When they were surrounded in complete darkness, Amelia waited for the sound of her sister's heavy breathing to let the first tear fall as she cried herself to sleep yet again._

* * *

"Hey, Matt," Bonnie greeted her friend at the hospital. Matt was partially clean, considering the fact that he had spent the entire night at the hospital by Caroline's side. Out of the three friends that had gotten into the car accident, he was the only one that got away without a scratch. However, he did have a broken arm from the float falling on him the day prior to the parade.

"Hey."

"You been here all night?"

"Yeah, with the Sheriff."

Bonnie was hesitant, but she was fishing for something. Or, rather, _someone_. "And no one else?" She'd never forgive herself if Caroline never got better because of what she did to Elena to try and get the vampires killed.

Matt had to think for a moment. "Well...I don't remember her name, but Stefan's friend stopped by late last night."

A look of relief flashed across Bonnie's face. "Claire?" she prompted. Matt nodded.

"Yeah...I didn't even know she and Caroline knew each other, but Claire insisted upon just stopping in to say hi."

Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, they...um, they have a lot in common." A small smile played on her lips as she realized what this meant. "How is Caroline today?"

Matt scoffed in disbelief. "See for yourself," he told her as he started to walk towards Caroline's room. Bonnie followed him to find her friend laying down in the hospital bed, all the color freshly returned to her face. Caroline was watching television, but the second she saw Matt and Bonnie enter her room, she sat upright in the bed and smiled at them.

"'Jersey Shore' is on," she informed Bonnie enthusiastically, causing Bonnie to smile even wider. Without waiting, Bonnie rushed into the room and wrapped her arms around Caroline in complete relief that her friend was going to be okay. Granted, it was by means of vampire blood, but it didn't matter. Caroline was okay, and that was all that mattered. Caroline gasped at Bonnie's hard hug. "Ooh! Careful! Still a little sore."

"Sorry," Bonnie apologized, straightening.

Caroline laughed. "It's okay. But they say I'm healing really quick." Bonnie nodded in agreement, and Matt leaned down with a smile painted on his face at Caroline's health.

"My turn." The two lovers kissed until Matt pulled away and Caroline girlishly giggled.

"Aw! Isn't he cute?" Caroline looked at Bonnie, who was nodding with tears in her eyes. Caroline frowned. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm just happy you're okay," Bonnie confessed as Matt pulled her into a hug. Caroline smiled, appreciating the attention.

"Well, I love you guys!"

"We love you." Matt swayed Bonnie side to side as Caroline cooed, feeling happy that she was going to be okay.

* * *

"I still can't believe she's alive," Claire commented as she and Christopher walked around the food table in the Lockwood mansion. Carol was hosting a wake for the mayor, who Claire had witnessed die in the basement fire. Christopher watched as his wife detached a cherry from its stem and chewed on it, deep in thought. They hadn't talked much the night before, but that was mostly because Claire went to the hospital, fed Caroline some blood, and had come back to the house just to crash in her bed. Besides, he'd still taken to one of the other guest rooms. "And the fact that she would visit _Stefan _just makes me want to…scream or something."

"Hopefully, she'll come see you soon," Christopher tried, knowing that there was no way to make it better for her. It was all up to Amelia. "For now…I think it's enough to just know that she's _alive, _right?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Claire agreed, nodding a few times. "I just have…_so _many questions. I mean, first of all—why'd she run away? Our parents didn't beat us or anything. I…I _thought _she was happy in Mystic Falls…" The vampire trailed off, trying to find some reason that her sister would've left. "Was it me? Did I not give her enough attention or something?"

Christopher shook his head. "I didn't know your sister, Claire, so I can't say. But I'm sure it wasn't for that. You loved her; she had to have known that."

Claire looked at him for a while before breaking her gaze to look down at the food. The guilt for kissing Damon consumed her every thought, but she forced it out of her mind to keep herself from feeling the guilt that came with kissing her friend's murderer. Not to mention the fact that she was—somewhat arguably—_married. _And the fact that she kissed the very reason she was on the outs with her husband was…pure irony. Sick irony.

She wanted to apologize; she wanted to tell her husband everything and hope that he would understand where this was coming from. There were feelings for Damon inside of her that she couldn't describe. Rogue feelings. Feelings of absolute attraction and nothing more. How could she have been so stupid to let her guard down? To actually think that she and Damon could attempt something more? It had been this way since the beginning of time and it would never change.

It was time to accept that.

However, there was something that Claire knew would get in the way. Damon, of course. He wouldn't just let her go crawling back to Christopher without repercussions. Maybe she had come to the realization that she and Damon would never get past the stage of being "frenemies", but every time Claire felt her lips collide with Damon again in her brain, she knew there was something different about the way he kissed her this time. It wasn't like that first night in the 20's before they'd come up with the no-kissing rule. It was more like the kiss he'd given her back in her room the night everything changed.

And if there was one thing Claire didn't want resurfacing, it was that night. So, when she spotted Damon out of the corner of her vision spying on Claire and her husband, she sighed. The dark-haired vampire tensed watching her eyes meet his, and he took a sip out of his alcohol and went out on the front porch of the Lockwood mansion. Claire sighed and looked at Christopher, who was grabbing food from the buffet before them, completely oblivious.

"I'll...be right back, okay?"

Christopher looked up at her and shrugged. "Okay."

With a nod of assurance, Claire turned and walked around the buffet table to follow Damon's footsteps. She went through the two doors that exited to the Lockwood's front porch. She looked right and didn't see him, and then she turned her head to the left and spotted Damon sipping his alcohol and staring off into the distance of sad town residents. Claire stormed up to him and crossed her arms.

"Every single _freaking _time that I think we can actually move past all the deception and the lies, there you go again…hiding something _else _from me," Claire said as she reached him. Damon sighed to himself and kept his expression blank.

"I thought it was the best thing…at the time," Damon confessed with a small shrug. "Stefan was already pissed at me for killing her, and I didn't need someone else to guilt me."

"You killed _Lexi_!" Claire hissed angrily. Damon turned to her. "How can you live with yourself? She was our _friend_!"

"She was your friend," Damon pointed out. "Not mine. And, quite frankly, every time _I _think that you're ready to actually accept the fact that there's something more going on between us, there _you_ go again…picking _another _argument with me."

Claire scoffed. "You think this is me _picking _an argument with you because we kissed? This is me pissed at you for no other reason than you _killed _my friend! And then _lied _to me about it, plain and simple."

"I kissed you," Damon said blankly, his eyes clouded from the alcohol. "You kissed me. The fact that you're now pissed at me is actual _proof _that you always find something to argue about whenever that happens."

"I do not!" Claire whisper-hissed, but stopped short when she saw Elena, Jenna, and Jeremy walk up beside her and Damon as they entered the house. Elena spotted them in their heated argument, and she turned to Jenna.

"Uh…you guys go ahead. I'll...uh, I'll be right there, okay?" After a shrug from Jenna and Jeremy, they walked into the Lockwood household and Elena walked over to Damon and Claire. "Is everything okay over here?"

Claire sighed. "Elena—"

"Clarissa?"

Claire froze in her sentence, trying to determine whether or not her ears were deceiving her. Damon and Elena looked behind Claire, but could not see what was standing before them. With slow movements, Claire turned around to come face-to-face with her younger sister, who stood only a few feet away from her.

"Oh, my..._God,_" Claire spoke, breathless.

Amelia gave a small, tight smile to her, and Claire looked at the stranger she called her own flesh and blood. Amelia was older now—seventeen, maybe, like Stefan had suggested. She had grown taller, gotten thinner, and had only matured with more beauty. Claire couldn't help herself—after over a century and a half, she couldn't contain it. She rushed forward and pulled her sister into an embrace, finding comfort in the teenager's arms. Damon and Elena watched Amelia, first shocked at the touch, but then softening as she wrapped her arms around her sister.

"I thought you were…gone, Amelia. Long gone," the elder sister whispered against the teenager's hair.

"I know." Amelia pulled away and looked over at Damon and Elena, her eyes lingering over the human look-alike for a moment before she turned to Damon and smiled slightly. "Hey, Damon."

"Amelia," he greeted, reeling over it, himself. His brother had been telling the truth—Amelia King was actually alive. A vampire, no less. Amelia looked at Elena again but then moved her eyes towards Claire.

"Claire…do you think we can…go somewhere to talk?"

"Sure." Claire nodded, still shocked, but glad that she finally came to visit her. "Come on, let's…let's go this way." She gestured towards the exit on the left side of the porch, and Damon and Elena watched as Claire and Amelia left without another word to them. Damon sighed once Claire and her sister were gone.

"Well, isn't that a wonderful family reunion photo-op?" he taunted and turned back at Elena, who crossed her arms and looked up at him with innocent doe eyes. Damon groaned. "What?"

"How are you doing?" Elena asked skeptically, almost afraid to ask the question. Damon sighed.

"Great, Elena. Walkin' on sunshine. Thanks for asking."

"Damon…"

"Elena," he deadpanned, giving her a _look. _She frowned at him again, not amused by his theatrics.

"Damon, we're close enough now. I really want to know how you're doing with this whole…" Elena cleared her throat, "…Claire thing."

"Claire thing?" Damon repeated, shrugging and shaking his head. "What Claire thing?" Elena scowled at him and kept her arms crossed, waiting for him to stop joking around with her and actually answer the question. When Damon realized there was no way out of it, he finally caved. "Fine. I kissed her. I thought she kissed me back. Doppelgänger hijinks ensued, and now she hates me again. How do you _think _I'm doing?"

"I think that you're hurt."

"Mm…no, I don't get _hurt, _Elena."

Elena looked at him with knowing eyes. "No, you don't _admit _that you get hurt. You get angry, cover it up, and then you do something _stupid_."

Damon let out a soft groan. "You know, instead of worrying about _me _getting hurt, maybe you should take a second and worry about getting hurt, yourself."

Elena cocked an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, Amelia King is back in town." Damon shrugged at her as if it were obvious, but Elena shook her head. "Come on…Stefan really never mentioned her? At all?"

"He told me that they were close as teenagers, but then she ran away and he never saw her again," Elena told him, still confused.

Damon smiled. "And I'm assuming he didn't tell you about all the nights he kept me up talking about how beautiful she was or how smart she was or how he wanted to ask our father to marry her and keep the hope of a marital tie between the Salvatores and the Kings _alive_?" Elena fell silent, giving Damon his answer. "Right. Of course he didn't tell you. I'm sure it's on a diary page somewhere. If I find it, I'll let you know."

"It's different now," Elena assured Damon, refusing to give into his tactics. "Stefan loves me. Amelia coming back won't change anything."

"Keep telling yourself that, Elena."

"You know, I know what you're doing," Elena accused him, doing all but pointing the finger. Damon gave her a teasing look. "You're trying to distract me from what I wanted to talk about—you and Claire. You kissed last night, and Stefan doesn't know."

Damon shrugged. "He doesn't need to know."

"But I'm guessing it's not the first time," Elena said suddenly, and Damon tried to mask his surprise that she figured it out by drowning himself in a sip of alcohol. "I'm almost _positive_ you've done it before, actually. I can see it between you two."

"See what?"

"You love her," Elena said simply, shrugging her shoulders. Damon peered at Elena from the side, and she watched him as he tried to keep a straight face. "More than Katherine, too. Because if you didn't, Katherine never would've felt threatened and she never would've had to turn Claire. I think you've always loved her."

"Elena!" someone shouted before Damon was allowed to respond to the accusation. Damon and Elena turned to see Bonnie breathing heavily as she rushed out of the Lockwood mansion. Elena raised her eyebrows.

"Bonnie, what happened?"

* * *

"The Lockwoods have a lot more land than they used to," Katherine commented as she and Stefan walked around the pond behind the Lockwood's mansion. "The possessions of all the tomb vampires built them _quite _a fortune."

"Yeah, why did you want them dead, hmm?" Stefan asked, trying to get answers. "You're the one who turned most of them."

Katherine scoffed. "There's nothing more _annoying _than a vengeful vampire, Stefan. Just ask John Gilbert."

Katherine and Stefan came to a slow in front of a bench up at the top of the pond, and Katherine turned around as Stefan chuckled. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"

"But you have," Katherine countered, looking back at him. "You're stronger. Meaner. It's sexy."

"Don't flirt with me, Katherine. I'm not Damon. I haven't spent 145 years _obsessed_ with you."

"Yeah…" Katherine trailed off, her lips twitching down as she walked around Stefan, but she was nowhere near agreeing. "But based on your choice of women, I'd say otherwise." Stefan just laughed, feeling an anger rise in him as Katherine mentioned Elena. "Though I'll admit, it does bother me that you've fallen in love with someone else."

Stefan turned around at her. "Oh, I was never in _love_ with you, Katherine. You compelled me. So none of my feelings were real."

"You know whose feelings _were _real?" Katherine stepped forward with a vindictive smile as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Clarissa's. Damon's. I _knew_ I was always right about them." A sour expression overwhelmed Katherine's features.

"Claire and Damon were engaged for sixteen _years_. They were attached at the hip, it was natural for them to have some sort of…feelings," Stefan scoffed, and then shook his head. "But you don't know them now. Things changed over the years—they can't stand each other."

"Do you _really _believe that, Stefan?" Katherine asked, narrowing her eyes. Stefan shrugged, indicating that he did agree. "Really? You do? So...why did I walk in on your best friend and your brother having a hot make-out session on your girlfriend's front _porch_?"

Stefan shook his head and tried to get the image of Damon and Claire kissing out of his mind. Katherine was messing with him. He had to convince himself of that. So Stefan just plainly scoffed, disappointed at her theatrics. "That's…impossible. They would never."

"Believe what you want, Stefan. But I know the truth." She smiled at him. "And deep down, so do _you_."

"The truth?" Stefan prompted, and Katherine hummed in agreement as she chuckled to herself, trying to be innocent. "Well, the truth is…you're the same lying, selfish, manipulative _bitch _that you've always been. So whatever it is that you're doing here, why don't you just get on with it and leave town? Because if you don't, I will _hunt _you down and I will _rip _your heart out," the younger Salvatore snarled, satisfied watching Katherine's girlish grin fall from her face almost instantly.

Katherine let out a shaking breath. "You want to know why I'm here, Stefan? I came back for _you_."

Stefan felt an anger he'd never felt before rise up inside of him as he spat, "Well, the problem, Katherine…is that I _hate _you."

Katherine gritted her teeth in anger and flashed, picking up the first sharp object that she could see. With blind rage, she shoved the metal stick into Stefan's abdomen so he groaned and doubled over into her shoulder, and Katherine held him upright as she hissed, "You hate me, huh? That sounds like the _beginning _of a love story, Stefan. Not the end of one."

Katherine twisted the stick in him further and dropped the youngest Salvatore, causing him to fall straight to the ground in pure weakness while she flashed away from the scene of the crime, too pissed off to play games at the Lockwood mansion anymore. Stefan groaned at the stick in his torso, but he couldn't find the strength to pull it out himself.

Christopher, who had stepped outside the Lockwood mansion for some fresh air, immediately heard Stefan's groans and looked around, trying to find the Salvatore brother. He looked back and forth, but the sounds weren't coming from anywhere closer to him. Eventually, when he looked up, he saw Stefan in front of him by a bench out over by the pond, trying to pull an iron stick out of his stomach. Flashing so fast that no human would notice, Christopher rushed up to Stefan.

"What happened?" the vampire asked, reaching down to help Stefan take out the stick by ripping it out like a Band-Aid.

Stefan groaned once more out of pain before he growled, "Katherine."

* * *

"_Don't you just love the smell of the roses, Amelia?" Stefan practically sang as they walked through the gardens behind the Salvatore estate, smelling the fresh spring roses on the bushes. "It's exceptional, isn't it?"_

_Amelia nodded, but she wouldn't know. She found the smell foul, and she hadn't even gotten closer than a few feet away. Stefan could see her pinched nose, and he just laughed and extended a rose to her._

"_You didn't even smell one, Amelia. Go on, try it."_

"_I'm all right, Stefan. I think roses are...overrated," she fumbled for the excuse, feeling the bile rise in her throat. Stefan eyed her features, watching as Amelia drifted from flower to flower with a disgusted face, so he moved backwards and towards the tulip bushes. He plucked one of them off and returned to Amelia, who hadn't even noticed that he had left, even for that split second._

"_Well, perhaps a tulip is better suited for you," Stefan said quietly, extending the flower to her. "In my opinion, they're just like you. Special. Beautiful. Fascinating " He smiled as he trailed off and watched as Amelia looked up at him with those beautiful, big grey eyes of hers._

"_Oh, Stefan…" she trailed off, taking the flower, but the scent was too much. She doubled over and tried to shield herself from Stefan as she threw up her breakfast for seemingly no reason at all. She loved the smell of flowers—she used to, anyway. Stefan reached forward and brushed Amelia's long, blonde hair out of her shoulder so the vomit didn't get in her hair._

"_Amelia! Amelia, are you all right?" Stefan pushed. "Have you come down with something?"_

_Amelia dropped the flower, having no room for it in her hands. She was most certainly _not _all right. This wasn't a stomach bug, it wasn't a fever. It was something…something that she couldn't let anyone realize. Something that was absolutely morbid to a thirteen-year-old who barely started her life._

_Amelia King was pregnant._

* * *

"What are you…_doing _back here?" Claire asked Amelia, shaking her head as they walked across the front lawn of the Lockwood mansion together, avoiding the crowds of people that flocked for Mayor Lockwood's memorial. "After all this time, why _now_?"

Amelia stopped next to the water fountain, touching her sister's arm lightly. "Claire, I know you have a lot of questions. And trust me, I know you want answers, too. But I can't..._give _them to you right now. Doing this is hard enough."

Claire grimaced. "So you won't tell me why you're here?" Amelia shook her head meekly, having nothing to say. Her sister just remained quiet for a long time before continuing, "Fine. Fine, then tell me...what happened back in 1860? Why'd you run?"

Though Amelia was able to answer that question, she didn't want to. She hated talking about it, even 163 years later. She'd been pushing it out of her mind for 163 years and counting. But one look at Claire's face and she knew she _had _to answer that question, much to her dismay. The younger King ran her tongue over her teeth. "All right. Claire...do you remember Michael Gilbert, Jonathan Gilbert's son?"

"The drunk? Sure. Why?"

Amelia sighed and held up her hands. "Just...promise you won't freak out. It was a long time ago and...I mean, I hate talking about it but I've moved on. Promise me."

Claire crossed her arms. "Okay...but what's so bad that I'd freak out over it?"

Amelia knew her sister was protective. "Protective" was more of an understatement, sometimes. Looking back on it, Amelia realized that Claire most likely would've taken a bat over to Michael Gilbert's house and beat the shit out of him for what he did to an innocent 13-year-old. Claire was a very passionate woman; Amelia was no different. But she had learned, over time, that it was a very futile habit.

"Well, that one day that Mother took me to his house while they were...I don't know, having some party or something"—Amelia rolled her eyes to herself, knowing that her mother had not kicked her out of the house because of a party, but she couldn't dwell on that now—"Michael...well, he raped me. I think that's the simplest way I can say it."

Claire stood still for a while, her expression unmoving. Her eyes blinked, trying to process the information she was given. "Amelia, you were...you were _thirteen."_

Amelia nodded. "I know, Claire."

The elder sister swallowed down bile that threatened at her throat. "He...he..." She gave a disgusted look and her jaw practically hit the floor. Eventually, she recovered from the shock and looked at Amelia with eyes full of puzzlement. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was scared, Claire." Amelia scoffed, as if it were obvious. "I didn't know what to do. That night I came and asked you if it was normal for a girl to miss her period and you told me that it meant she was pregnant, I lost it. I started throwing up all over the place, my body was changing in ways I didn't even know it could..." the teenager trailed off, shaking her head. "I thought the best thing to do was to leave and have the baby somewhere else."

"You got _pregnant _because of that son of a bitch?" Claire snapped, almost growling the words. Amelia frowned.

"Claire, I told you not to get angry."

"How can I not get angry?! You had a _child _when you were thirteen! That's not _normal, _Amelia." Amelia shrugged in agreement, but it'd been such a long time that she didn't feel like getting angry over it anymore. She had to accept the fact that her luck had been astronomically unfortunate. "What happened to the baby?"

"I gave her away," Amelia replied. "I could't take care of it on my own. It was just too much pressure. I didn't know the first thing about taking care of a child."

"Is she still alive?"

"Not that I know of. I doubt it, though."

"Didn't you try to find her when she was older? After you'd turned?"

Amelia shook her head. "It was too hard for me. I couldn't handle it." Claire looked like she had a million more questions, but Amelia stopped her. "Claire, that's all I can say about it. I'm sorry."

Claire swallowed, fighting the urge to bombard her sister with questions. "O-Okay. Fine. So who turned you, then?" Amelia was quiet, causing Claire to snort. "Oh, come on, Amelia. You show up after 163 years and expect me to not ask who turned you?"

"Claire, I just can't."

"When'd it happen?"

"Before my eighteenth birthday."

"How?"

"I can't...I can't tell you."

"God _damn _it, Amelia!" Claire snapped, fighting the urge to angrily stomp her foot like she was a teenage girl again. Her sister was being so _difficult _with her. "You don't find me for over a century and then you come back here, waltzing right into Mystic Falls, and you're just...just _secretive! _I don't understand any of this!"

Amelia looked at Claire with apologetic yet unapologetic eyes. "I know, and I told you, I'm sorry. But I can't answer all your questions right now, Claire. It's not the right time or the right place to do that."

"Well...when _is _the right time and the right place?"

"Soon."

"Soon?"

"Soon." Amelia nodded firmly. "And I didn't mean to just...waltz back here or anything. Over the years, I just got so comfortable with myself that I realized it would only make things harder on both of us if you knew I was a vampire. You were wrapped up with Stefan and Damon...they became your priority."

"Wait a second, you checked up on me over the years?"

Amelia scoffed. "How else would I have known you liked to be called Claire instead of Clarissa?"

Claire was taken by surprise. That's right; her sister _had _been calling her by her nickname instead of her birth name and she hadn't even noticed the difference. For a moment, she pondered on how Amelia learned it, but then she narrowed her eyes. "You went to Rio, didn't you?"

"It's nice."

"It is, isn't it? Claire agreed, nodding. Amelia smiled, and Claire moved on, thinking back to what Amelia said before. "Look, I love Stefan like a brother, but he's _not _my brother. You're my _sister_, Amelia. My real sister." Amelia's shoulders rose and fell, but Claire knew that it wasn't her relationship with the Salvatores that drove her sister into hiding. Amelia was afraid of being with family again, and Claire didn't blame her. Being raped at 13 by the town's drunk and having it result in an unplanned pregnancy was reason enough to stay away from the ones you love. "So what made you decide to visit Stefan first?"

Amelia could sense the annoyance in Claire's tone, and she sighed. "I...I don't know what I was thinking. I was _really _going to come to you first, but I saw him at the Grill and I...well, I wanted to talk to him. But he just threw questions at me and then his phone rang, so...I panicked and left."

"Where'd you go?" Amelia was silent. "Come on...you can't even tell me where you're staying?" The teenager shook her head tightly. "What about how long? How long are you staying?" No answer. "Amelia..."

"I told you, Claire. Not now. I can't," Amelia said softly, trying to explain without explaining. Now, it was just pissing Claire off to be an outsider in her own sister's life. Amelia studied the elder blonde before her. "Just give me some time, okay?"

"Time for _what_?" Claire exclaimed, exasperated. Amelia stared at her again, unwilling to answer. This time, Claire just gave up. She admitted defeat gracefully, deciding that she wasn't in the mood to fight with someone _else_. A groan escaped her lips. "Fine! Fine, I'll stop asking questions, then. Happy?"

Amelia nodded. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "And I promise, I will try my hardest to make sense out of all this soon. But right now...well, I've got to go."

At this, Claire snapped her eyes over to look at the teenager. "What? No! You just got here."

"I'll talk to you soon. Okay?" Amelia called out as she began to back away. Claire shook her head and stepped forward to follow Amelia.

"Amelia, wait a second—" But it was too late. Amelia had already vanished in thin air, leaving Claire by the water fountain in front of the Lockwood mansion, alone.

* * *

Elena dabbed at Stefan's wound, trying to clean up all the blood with a tissue that she had gotten from inside the Lockwood mansion. Stefan looked down at it, and then up at Elena, who sighed trying to clear all the blood before someone noticed.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. It'll heal," Stefan assured her. Elena frowned at him.

"That's not what I meant," she told him, and Stefan turned his head, thinking the same thing. Eventually, he sighed in exhaustion and defeat.

"I was…trying to figure her out. I was…playing along, and I let her get to me," Stefan mumbled.

"I tried to track her, but she's gone. Christopher went to look for Claire and Amelia," Damon interrupted. Seeing Stefan's torso exposure, Damon cringed and shut his eyes. "Ooh! Cover up, Fabio. We've got a _crazy _ex on the loose." Stefan covered himself up and Damon looked down at Elena with a smirk. "Better watch out. Now there's _two _women trying to steal your guy."

Stefan raised his eyebrows at Damon. "Two?"

"Oh...come on. Blonde, seventeen, absolutely _stunning _and...shockingly, not dead."

"Damon…" Stefan trailed off, shaking his head in disregard. Elena looked over at him, but Stefan turned away from her so he wasn't looking her straight in the eyes. "That's not what's happening."

"Isn't it?" Damon retorted, trying to create more of a problem then there already was. "It's only fair since—"

"Since what?" Stefan looked up at Damon with hard eyes. "Since you kissed my best friend?"

Damon fell completely silent, admitting his guilt by default. Stefan scoffed at him and returned his head back to a hanging position, and Elena looked up at Damon before she cleared her throat.

"I'm…gonna go check on Jenna and Jeremy," she said, feeling as if she was in a tight situation that she had no business being a part of. Grabbing her purse, Elena got up from the bench and walked back to the Lockwood mansion, only left to imagine what was going on between Stefan and Damon since Stefan now found out about Damon and Claire's kiss. Sure enough, once Elena was out of earshot, Damon sighed at his brother.

"So what's it gonna be, huh?" He held up his hands in a boxing position mockingly. "Fight to the death?" Stefan scoffed. "Go ahead. Make your threats. Protect your best friend's innocence! Or...well, lack thereof." Damon punched his brother playfully, but Stefan looked up at him and shook his head.

"I'm not gonna fight you."

"Why?!" Damon exclaimed, dropping his hands in disappointment. "I'd fight me!"

"First of all, I'm not even the one this _really _affects, and you know it." Damon's smirk dropped as Stefan sat up from the bench and gestured between them. "But Katherine's going to try to play us against each other; you do know that, right?"

"Brother, don't you worry. Our bond is _unbreakable!"_

However, Stefan was not amused by Damon's sarcasm. He stood up immediately and brushed past Damon's childish actions. "We need to stay _united _against her. Specifically to protect Claire because we _know _how much Katherine hates her. So, yes, as much as I would like to _kill _you, I'm not going to fight you. And I hope for all our sakes that Christopher does the same."

Damon narrowed his eyes, not willing to accept his brother's reaction. In attempt to provoke Stefan, Damon called out tauntingly, "I _kissed _Claire!"

"Because you feel something for her!" Stefan spun around, stating the obvious truth. Damon turned his head and tried to downplay his brother's exclamation, but it wouldn't work. "Because you actually _care. _And I'm not gonna let Katherine come in here and _destroy_ that part of you that has finally, after all of this time, willing to _feel _something other than hate." Damon turned his head to lock eyes with his brother, who stepped forward. All while Stefan remained talking, Damon tried to remain disinterested, but his brother's words were getting to him. "Katherine will try to break you. She'll try to break _us_. And how we respond to that will define us. It's our choice. So…no. I'm not gonna fight you."

Stefan walked off, leaving Damon to think about the conversation. While Stefan walked back to the Lockwood mansion, Claire jogged up to him and stopped her friend in his tracks, breathing heavily.

"Hey! Christopher told me about Katherine. What happened? Are you okay?" Claire rushed out, her eyes roaming Stefan to any sign of an injury. Stefan sighed at her and shook his head.

"Claire…did you kiss Damon?" Stefan asked suddenly, causing Claire to stop and look up into Stefan's green eyes. She scoffed and shook her head.

"W-What are you talking—?"

"Don't try to deny it. I know," Stefan interrupted. Claire dropped her eyes and realized that she'd been caught, and she tried desperately to find an excuse.

"Stefan, I'm…"

"Don't say you're sorry," Stefan interrupted again, holding up his hands with a scoff. Claire shifted, finding guilt consume her as she saw Stefan look at her with hurt in his eyes from the truth being hidden at him. "We both know it's not _me _you should be apologizing to."

"Stefan—" But before she could get out another word, Stefan had brushed past her and continued walking to the Lockwood mansion, leaving Claire to find Damon a few feet away from her, staring at her expression as the guilt overwhelmed her entire capacity to feel inside.

* * *

When Damon returned to the boarding house, all was quiet. He was certain that Stefan was at Elena's and Claire and Christopher were probably with him. Of course, he was the only one that Claire didn't forgive for killing Lexi. She'd already forgotten about the fact that Stefan lied—because Saint Stefan could do no wrong in her eyes. And, of course, the girl was never the one blamed for a scandal such as kissing; it was always the evil, ruthless older brother, wasn't it? So Damon accepted the fact that he was all alone in the boarding house and moved on, starting his first drink of the night by pouring himself a glass of bourbon in the solitary of his own home. He turned to go upstairs to his room, but instead, he felt the presence of someone else inside the house.

Not Stefan.

Not Claire.

Not Christopher.

"Very brave of you to come here," Damon growled as he turned around to face Katherine, sitting on his couch with her feet up on the coffee table.

She shrugged. "I wanted to say goodbye."

"Leaving so soon?"

"I know where I'm not wanted."

"Don't pout," Damon chided. "It's not attractive on a woman your age." He pulled the glass of bourbon up to his lips and downed it, watching as Katherine scoffed playfully.

"Ouch." The glass drained, Damon set it down on the coffee table and turned to ignore Katherine's presence and go upstairs, but instead, she stopped him yet again with another cat-like pout. "What, no goodbye kiss?"

"Why don't I kill you instead?" Damon suggested. Katherine chuckled at him, but she wasn't afraid and he could tell. "What are you doing here?"

"Nostalgia, curiosity…et cetera."

Damon shrugged at her in disapproval. "I'm better at the enigmatic one-liners, Katherine. What are you up to?"

"Trust me, Damon. When I'm up to something, you'll know it." Damon just raised his eyebrows at her as he tried to figure her out, but Katherine merely stepped forward and changed the subject. "Come on. Kiss me. Or kill me. Which will it be, Damon?" Damon tried to step back, but Katherine was relentless. "We both know that you're only capable of _one_."

Damon turned, finished with Katherine and her games, but she appeared before him and knocked him down on the floor without remorse. Damon landed with a thud and a groan, and Katherine leaned on top of him with her hands roaming around the area of his chest that was covered by his black button-down shirt. Her hair fell over them as he leaned closer, her lips right at his ear.

"My sweet…_innocent _Damon…"

Damon flipped them over in an instant, catching Katherine off guard when he wrapped his hand around her throat and held her tightly against the floor. He looked down at her with crazed, murderous eyes, but he could see the light that shone in Katherine's. She wasn't afraid that he'd kill her. She was waiting for him to do the opposite, actually.

And Damon conceded, surging down to capture Katherine's lips with his own in a fiery, sloppy kiss that he had waited to have for 145 years. Katherine kissed him back enthusiastically and purred underneath her breath, "Now that's more like it."

Damon pulled his lips back to hers and Katherine flashed them up to a standing position across the room. Damon found himself pinned against the wall, Katherine's hand wrapped tightly around his throat just like he had done earlier. But Katherine panted with desire and released his throat, her hands moving down to rip open Damon's shirt mercilessly and her desperate hands clawed at his exposed chest. He kissed her again and threw her against the side table in the parlor, knocking over a pile of books that he had neglected to put away. His lips tasted her skin—her perfect skin—and he moaned aloud, coaxing the same reaction from Katherine. But before Damon could let it get any further, he had to stop himself.

"Okay. Okay, wait. Wait," Damon pleaded against her jaw. Katherine's eyes opened, snapping out of the desire-filled fun she'd hoped to relive, but Damon wouldn't continue. "Brief pause."

An annoyed Katherine shoved him off of her, pushing Damon a few feet away. She stood before him, waiting, and the two stared at each other from across the way. Katherine was displeased, but Damon was determined to get an answer of his own. Stefan had talked to her, and he wanted the same courtesy.

"I have a question. Answer it, and it's back to…fireworks and rocket's red glare." He chuckled. "Answer it right, and… I'll forget the last 145 years I've spent missing you. I'll forget…how much I loved you. I'll forget _everything_ and we can start over. This can be our defining moment. Because we have the _time_. That's the beauty of eternity." Damon stepped forward and placed his hands around Katherine's face, brushing her dark curls out of her eyes. "I just need the truth; just _once_—"

"Stop. I already know your question. And its answer." Katherine placed a hand between them and closed her eyes, shaking her head in the process. Damon looked her over, trying to find some hint of a good sign that could let them be happy together. Damon brushed another piece of hair out of her eyes and traced the outline of her face, desperately trying to hold onto the image of her that he viewed as a human. But her next words ruined it. "The truth is…I've never loved you. It was always Stefan."

Her words cut through him like a sharp knife, and Damon felt his heart shatter into a million pieces at her truth. Katherine stared at him, unapologetic, until she finally lifted his hands from her face and walked off, leaving Damon as a broken as he could possibly be.

* * *

_Though Amelia was frightened beyond doubt when each day went by and she didn't notice the regular splotches of blood that came from her, she knew she had to do something. She'd seen pregnant women in the town—their bodies had changed beyond the ability to hide. Being a thirteen-year-old girl, people would definitely notice if she were to start showing that bodily change, and she had to admit that she was afraid. Not afraid of what would happen to her, but afraid of what people might think. Would anyone believe her if she cried to them that Michael Gilbert forcibly violated her innocence? He was a Founding Family member—a Gilbert, even. No matter how much importance came with being a King, no one would believe a 13-year-old girl's word over that of a grown man, and Amelia knew this. She wasn't stupid._

_But the only person that she could trust—the only person that she knew would believe her—was her sister. Clarissa carried more weight than Amelia did in the family. She would be able to convince them all of the truth._

_Amelia found her sister and her father in the midst of an argument when she finally found the free time to talk with them. She caught the tail end of this argument as she went unnoticed for a few seconds, and it was clear to her what the argument was about. Their father was insisting that she either apologize and patch things up with Damon Salvatore or find another willing man to marry. Clarissa refused, appalled at the idea of apologizing to the Salvatore boy. Amelia's sister and her father silenced once Clarissa spoke her peace and found her father staring behind her._

_Edward King looked at his daughter with cold eyes. "Clarissa, your mother told me that she informed you of your obligation. You don't have much time left, so I suggest you make a decision before I make one for you."_

_Clarissa opened her mouth, but her father was gone in an instant. Amelia immediately moved out of his way, unwilling to look at her father when he was angry. Overall, she lived in a good household—Edward and Marianne didn't beat her or neglect her. But, like every other male in town, when Edward got angry, it was something a woman did not want to be around. Amelia stepped inside of Clarissa's room while her elder blonde sister sighed frustratedly and clenched her fists to subdue her anger._

_"Clarissa?" Amelia asked in a small voice. "Do you think that we could—?"_

_"Amelia." Clarissa turned around at her with eyes that pierced through her. Amelia had never seen her sister look at her like that—with annoyance. Considering her situation, it was not a comforting sight. "I do _not _have time for your childish inquisitions or even your presence right now. Can't you see I have too much to deal with? Go."_

_"But, Clarissa—"_

_"I said leave, Amelia!" Clarissa barked, swallowing hard. Amelia's eyes watered watching as her sister moved over to her dresser without a second glance over her shoulder. Clarissa angrily pulled out the silver combs in her hair and set them down, yanking out some of the blonde strands in the process. Amelia kept her cries to herself until she returned back into her room in solitary. She didn't know what to do or who to turn to. Her parents would never listen to her and her sister flat-out threw her out of her room. If she didn't have Clarissa, who did she have?  
_

_She had no one. That was the simple answer; she had no one._

_Mystic Falls was no place for her anymore—not with a Gilbert baby inside of an adolescent girl due in nine months. But what could she do? She had nowhere to hide, no one to talk to about her impending problem. She'd be dead before she went back to Michael Gilbert for any sort of help. With the way he treated her, he'd rather see her dead than with child. The concept seemed so foreign to her—being with child._

_There was only one thing to do to keep herself and her family from facing shame beyond belief: leave._

* * *

"Perimeter all clear?" Claire asked as she watched Christopher walk through the back door of the Gilbert house and shut it. She was in the kitchen, filling a kettle with water so she could heat it and make some tea for all of them before the night was over. Christopher sighed and nodded.

"Yeah. As far as I can tell. You really think Katherine's gonna come here again?" he asked. Claire shrugged.

"There's always the possibility. Katherine's unpredictable." Christopher snorted in agreement and walked over to her at the sink as she waited for the kettle to fill. "Do you want to head home? I think I should stay a little while longer, but I can meet you back there. Stefan can stay overnight, which I'm sure he was going to do, anyway." She looked up at him with hopeful eyes and turned her back after shutting off the tap. She set the kettle on the heated stove just as her husband responded.

"Sure. I guess I can head back," Christopher agreed, and things went silent as Claire fidgeted with the heat options on the kitchen's stove. After a while, Christopher sighed. "You know...we never really..._talked _about what happened with us. Where we stand, I guess."

Claire stopped fidgeting with the knobs and turned around to face Christopher, who was leaning against the Gilbert's kitchen island. She swallowed and averted her eyes. "Yeah...I guess you're right. But I think I have a solution."

"And what would that be?"

"I think we need to let it go. Both of us," Claire said immediately, intriguing her husband as he listened to the mending theory. Claire had no idea whether or not she _liked _this method of arguing...or, rather, _talking_. "I don't know if Damon..._loves _me, and I don't think I'll ever know. But what I do know is that I _don't _love him. And I can't promise you that Damon and I won't...spend time together or get along, but I can promise you that it won't be anything more. I don't think of him that way."

Christopher crossed his arms with an expression of approval. "I can accept that."

Claire smiled. "Good."

"But I'm not done," Christopher shook his head, causing her to raise his eyebrows. "You said I...I looked at you like you were a human, but I don't agree with you. Do you want to know what I see in you, Claire? Even when I call you _Clarissa_?" She opened her mouth to protest it, but he flashed forward and brought his lips to hers without warning.

Claire had never been kissed like that before—not by _him, _anyway. There was something _different _about it, something that she wanted to explore. Some part of her had feared that she was no longer attracted to her husband, but the kiss he gave her completely rid her of that. It was no longer soft, like she was breakable, but it was rough and hard and it made her head spin like she was a teenage girl again. She kissed him back without reserve and soon realized that it was one of the best kisses she'd ever had.

Christopher broke away from her, only to be satisfied by her panting breath and the lack of air in both of them.

"Where the _hell _did you learn how to kiss like that?" Claire said breathlessly as he stepped back and she traced a thumb over her lips. Her eyes looked up. "Have you been kissing other women?"

Christopher frowned. "Now that's just ridiculous."

"I was just wondering." Claire shook her head in disbelief. "I...I—"

"I've never kissed you like that before, Claire, because...well, let's face it. We were _forced_ to marry each other." He threw up his hands and shrugged, but she felt a pang of disappointment in her heart. "And until I realized the very likely possibility that you were going to _die _down in that basement, I never realized how much it was possible to love one person. Because I do, Claire. I love you. I'd love you even if we weren't married."

She stood silently, but she knew he knew that she wasn't going to say it back. She watched as Christopher stepped forward and brushed her long, blonde hair off of her shoulder and gave her a tight smile. "And despite what you think, I like _Claire _more than I like _Clarissa_. I know what kind of person you are, and I love you even more for it. Does that make any sense to you at all?"

Claire nodded, but she found herself focused on Christopher's lips. Without knowing it, she blurted out, "_Please _kiss me again."

She could see the flash of a grin across Christopher's lips before he pulled her head to his and their lips touched in another burning kiss that she realized she was missing out on. This time, she was a more avid participant, moving her lips in sync with his. She found herself blinded with a passion that she _knew, _as did he, they couldn't satisfy in the midst of Elena's family's kitchen.

Claire pushed him away from her gently, holding her husband by the collar of his shirt. "Let me say goodbye to Stefan and I'll go back home with you."

Christopher shook his head. "No, I think you were right. Stay here for a little while longer. I'm gonna go get a drink, anyway." His index finger came around and wrapped under her chin to pull it up. He kissed her again, quickly, and then released her. "I'll see you at home."

Claire nodded, speechless, and he smiled as he left by way of Elena's back porch. Claire knew he was gone the second he stepped foot outside, but she remained unmoving, processing for a moment.

"Wow," she murmured to herself, tracing her lips again. It was like something had _possessed _him. She'd never _felt _that way before. Her eyes widened as she turned around to the stove in disbelief and repeated, "Wow."

But just as the kettle whistled to let Claire know that the hot water was ready, there was a knock on the Gilbert door. Hearing the knock, Claire brought herself out of her mesmerizing experience and she put the kettle on the unheated burner so that it wouldn't boil over. She answered the door in extreme caution, realizing that Elena and Stefan were probably too busy panicking over Katherine to hear the knock. When Claire opened it, she found an alcohol-clouded Damon standing on the porch, barely able to keep himself upright. Seeing his state, Claire widened her eyes and let all thoughts drift from her as she brought herself out of the house and pulled the door shut behind her.

"Damon? What are you doing here?" She paused, sniffed, and finally added, "While you're _drunk_?"

"_You're _the liar, Claire," Damon snapped at her, cutting right to the chase. Claire scoffed, surprised at his outburst, and quite offended.

"Excuse me?"

"You blame me for lying to you about Lexi when you and I both know that's not the issue here. Lexi's _dead _and there's nothing you can do about it, but you're _afraid. _You're afraid that what happened last night actually _means _something," he barked.

"What are you talking about? I'm not afraid of anything, and you _did _lie!" she whisper-shouted, trying not to catch the attention from Stefan upstairs. "After everything I've learned, last night means _nothing_ to me."

"You're lying!" Damon exclaimed again, raising his voice. Claire looked around desperately, making sure that none of the neighbors woke at Damon's loud voice. "There is _something_ going on between us and you know it! And it hasn't just been going on since 1928, it's been there since we were kids! You're lying to me, you're lying to Stefan, you're lying to Christopher, and most of all, you're lying to _yourself_."

Claire shook her head desperately and tried to step back as he came closer to his, the bourbon on his breath highly intoxicating—even to a sober vampire. "You're wrong, Damon."

"I'm not. And I can prove it."

"No, you can't, I—" Before she could object, Damon's hands enclosed around her face and he forced himself on her, using all the strength he had accumulated from his diet to keep her still. Claire struggled against him and pushed herself away eventually, getting far enough out of Damon's grasp. "Damon! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Lie about this—"

"God damn it, Damon, stop!" Claire fought him, shoving his hands back against his chest as he tried to lean forward again, pushing all his weight on her. "I'm done with this! I told you, I'm finished! And even though I'm _furious _with you for Lexi, that's not what _this _is about. I'm married, okay? This has to _stop_."

"You're not," Damon growled under his breath. "You're not married and you know it, Claire. People like us don't _get_ married. We're not the marriage _type_."

"I did," she said, breathless. "I did get married, and I still am..._married_. To someone who _loves_ me unconditionally and despite what you might think, I _want _it to work. You need to move on, Damon—stop! Stop, I said stop!" Claire snapped as he tried to kiss her again.

Suddenly, the front door to the Gilbert household opened and Jeremy found Claire and Damon at the porch, and he cocked an eyebrow. "Claire, what's going on out here? We heard yelling."

Claire looked back at him and sighed. "It's fine, Jeremy. It's just Damon. I can handle this, it's okay."

"No. No, Claire. It's not okay. He wants to be a vampire." Damon turned to look at Jeremy, shaking his head. Claire could see something change in Damon's eyes, but she didn't think he would resort to such drastic measures. "You wanna turn it off? It's the easiest thing in the world! All you have to do is flip the switch, and…"

Damon yanked Jeremy out of the house and, before Claire could reach forward and pull Damon off of the Gilbert teenager, Damon took his hands and snapped, causing Jeremy's body to fall limp on the front porch.

"Damon!" Claire shouted as she shoved him off, away from the dead Gilbert on the porch. Damon stumbled back from her hard shove, and he looked down at Jeremy with crazed eyes.

At the wild exclamation from Claire, Stefan opened the front door immediately to find Claire standing over Jeremy's dead body with recognition in her eyes—Jeremy had vampire blood in his system, and he would turn; it was inevitable. Elena appeared at the threshold, dressed for bed, and seeing her brother dead on the floor, she let out a cry and dropped. The human shook her brother's shoulders as Damon and Claire shared a glance and Stefan looked over at the broken Damon. Claire stepped forward and began to shove Damon off the porch.

"Get out of here! Get out of here before I take a stake and drive it through your heart _myself_."

Damon watched her as she looked at him with serious eyes, and he recognized quickly where he knew them from. Those were the same eyes she looked at him when he did something unbearable, but most of those times it was because he'd done something to his brother. This time, it was because he'd done something to _her_. Damon backed away off the porch, seemingly driven away by her powerful snap, and he disappeared into the night.

"Come on. Let's get him inside before someone sees," Stefan said to Elena as the teenage girl cried over her brother's body, coming to the same realization as the rest of them—that Jeremy would turn into a vampire in a short while. Tears leaked and wouldn't stop flowing as Stefan carried her brother's body into the Gilbert house, and Claire helped Elena get up from the floor and go inside. The blonde vampire shut the door as Stefan set Jeremy down on the couch, but not before he realized something and gasped. "Elena…"

For a moment, Elena stopped crying just long enough to look up at Stefan and see him hold up Jeremy's hand, which glistened because of a piece of jewelry that looked all too familiar.

"The Gilbert ring?" Claire whispered, confused. Elena walked over and grabbed Jeremy's hand to examine the ring, and she came to the slow realization that her brother was not dead—that he would wake up as a human again, and not a vampire.

At least, she hoped.

"He saw the ring," Stefan reasoned to Claire as they watched Elena rock Jeremy back and forth with wet eyes on the couch, waiting for him to wake up. They kept their voices to a whisper so that the human couldn't hear. Stefan was devastated with the actions of his brother, and he was desperate to find an excuse. "That's why he did it. He knew."

Claire shook her head as she leaned back against the threshold between the kitchen and the hallway. She was disappointed in Damon; even though she was angry at him for killing Lexi, he went over a line killing Jeremy. He hurt someone that he cared about. He hurt Elena_, _personally. It was the fact that Damon had not learned from his mistakes that had her finished with him completely.

"Stefan, he didn't see that ring. Trust me."

"It's Katherine," Stefan tried again, crossing his arms. Claire sighed and closed her eyes, trying not to listen to Stefan's hopefulness of his brother's redemption. "She got under his skin. She undid everything that was good about him."

"Don't you get it, Stefan?" Claire snapped coldly, pulling her head up to lock eyes with the younger Salvatore. "He's never gonna change! There is _nothing _good about Damon Salvatore! He doesn't want to _feel, _all he wants to be is _hated. _He killed Lexi and now he killed Jeremy; he went too far. There is no redemption for him! You're just gonna have to accept that."

Stefan shook his head. "If you really believe that, why'd you kiss him?"

Claire thought to herself, trying to come up with the real reason that she knew was in her heart. Eventually, she found it. With a shrug, she responded. "Because I was stupid, okay? I thought that Elena was right, that there was something good about him at last. But he's reckless...impulsive...and I can't do it anymore." She scoffed and looked up at her friend with a blank expression. Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. "I hate him, Stefan. I've always hated him. Maybe there were times when I saw something that could be salvaged, but it's gone. Right now, I don't see that changing."

Stefan leaned against the threshold. "Because of Lexi or because of Jeremy?"

Claire looked over at Elena with Jeremy on the couch, and she shrugged again. "Both." Her eyes moved back to Stefan. "You lied to me, Stefan. You went along with his lie. You let me believe that Sheriff Forbes was the one who did it. Why?"

Stefan hung his head. "Because I knew that, if you found out, there would be no turning back for you." He put his head back against the threshold. "I knew you would hate him again, and I thought I could avoid that. I thought, finally, that things could go back to the way they used to be." Things were silent, and Claire didn't need to confirm Stefan's thoughts because she already had. "Claire, I'm sorry for lying. I really am."

Claire nodded and kept her focus on Elena and Jeremy. She watched as Jeremy gasped and woke up right in Elena's arms, but the two vampires didn't move. After a while, the blonde vampire looked over at her friend.

"I know, Stefan."

Damon walked into the boarding house, his mind numb and his heart aching. He knew that, in one spilt second of a bad judgment, that he had ruined everything. All the progress he'd made…it all went away in one split second. He saw the look in Claire's eyes; the hatred that rested beneath the surface. The thought made his head spin, and he looked down to find the bourbon glass that he had been nursing before going over to the Gilbert's house. He reached down and grabbed it, but he didn't drink the small contents inside of the cup. Instead, he threw it—causing the glass to shatter all around the fireplace. Ever fiber of his being wanted to not feel, but that was practically impossible now. As much as he hated it, there was something within of him that began to feel the hurt he harbored inside.

* * *

Caroline Forbes sat in her hospital bed her eyes shut and her body on the verge of good rest. The television played in the background, but was muted for her comfort. The light was beginning to bother her, so when her eyes opened and her body told her to shift, she turned around at the television to turn it off. Instead, she found Elena standing over her bed, making her gasp in surprise.

"Elena?"

Katherine tilted her head at the young, pretty blonde, and smiled at her. "Hi, Caroline."

Caroline sighed and recovered from the startle, burying her head in her hands "What are you doing here?"

Katherine walked up to her bed with a smile that never dropped, and she leaned over Caroline and decided that she was done playing the role of the innocent little Elena. "My name is Katherine. I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me."

Caroline looked up at Katherine in surprise, but she didn't believe her one bit. _The drugs, _Caroline determined. _It's the drugs. _She sighed. "What are you talking about? What _message_?"

Katherine waited for the blonde to shift into a comfortable position before she said simply, "Game on."

"What—?" Caroline started, but was interrupted when Katherine pulled a pillow out from underneath Caroline's head and placed it over the blonde's face. Caroline's screamed muffled and Katherine pressed the pillow down harder, fighting Caroline as she struggled weakly against her vampire strength. The blonde kicked and flailed and screamed, but eventually, her hand moved to the side of the hospital bed and Katherine watched it drop, rendering the pretty young blonde teenager dead.

For now, anyway.

"A text would've sufficed," said a glum Amelia as she stepped out of the shadows. With a devious smirk upon her lips, Katherine turned around to face the youngest King sibling who oozed judgement. However, Katherine didn't let it get to her.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic." With a shrug, Katherine brushed past the younger vampire and walked out of the hospital while Amelia scoffed in disbelief at the doppelgänger's actions.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review please!**


	16. Brave New World

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please. There's also a deleted scene in this chapter that is not mine, either.**

* * *

**Brave New World**

"It's, uh, it's the same as the bracelet Elena gave you," Stefan told Jeremy as he, Claire, and the very much _alive _Gilbert teenager stood at the lockers inside of Mystic Falls High School. With one hand on his backpack strap, Jeremy reached over to grab the vervain liquid from Stefan.

"So it protects me from compulsion?"

"Ingested, it can protect you from being fed on a vampire, too," Claire added, crossing her arms. "Vervain is a toxic substance…to vampires, at least."

Jeremy looked up at her with knotted eyebrows. "You mean, like poison?"

"Yeah," Stefan answered, stealing the question from Claire. "It's very poisonous. It'll keep them out of your head."

"I mean…why _vervain_?"

"I don't know. Certain natural…herbs and roots and other elements that are just…harmful to vampires," Stefan explained with a shrug, but he couldn't really answer the bulk of the question. Vampire lineage wasn't something a vampire stumbled across in their eternity, oddly enough.

"Like a stake through the heart?" Jeremy interrogated.

"Yeah…but a _wooden _stake," Claire agreed and pointed at Jeremy as she tilted her head down and gave him a sharp glance. "Don't try to kill me with a cow. I hate cows. Stefan, on the other hand, loves them. Apparently, they're tasty."

Stefan frowned and turned his head to her. "You had _one _bad experience with cows in India and all of a sudden…you hate cows?"

"They're evil," Claire whispered ominously, throwing a glance at Jeremy, who was looking back and forth between the two vampires with surprise.

"You two must be pretty confident in yourselves, telling me all the different ways I could kill the both of you," he almost threatened. Other vampires might've taken offense, but Stefan just scoffed, as if the thought was laughable.

"Jeremy, if we thought you wanted to kill us, we'd be having a much different conversation, okay?"

Jeremy sighed. "Yeah, Damon is the one that deserves it."

Stefan peeked at Claire beside him, who let out a deep breath and slipped her hands in her pockets uncomfortably. He'd seen the way Claire looked at his brother last night and he knew that this wasn't going to fix itself. Damon had dug himself into a hole that was so deep, Stefan was afraid they would never be able to get out of it. Eventually, Stefan returned back to Jeremy's original comment and hung his head.

"I want you to forget about Damon, all right? He's a hundred times stronger than you and right now he's not…stable. Gotta try to move forward."

Jeremy looked at his sister's boyfriend with condescending eyes. "I was killed by a vampire and brought back by a magic ring. How do you move forward from there?" He scoffed.

"Easy," Claire retorted and looked around the high school. "You help a bunch of teenagers with a high school carnival as suggested by your best friend's girlfriend. Personally, it seems to be working _wonders _for me. There's _totally _nothing weird about being older than everyone else in this school—oh, hey…Elena," Claire said slowly as she felt Elena come up beside of her, a clipboard scraping the surface of Claire's arm.

Elena tried to give a smile, but she looked too swamped to really have listened to what Claire said before. "Hey. Um, do you—"

"Yeah, yeah. I set up the goldfish toss, all 300 goldfish; it's gonna be epic," Jeremy said sarcastically as he slammed his locker door shut and left the trio's side with his backpack slung over one shoulder. Elena took his place so she was facing the two vampires and she groaned out of frustration while leaning against the lockers.

"He's gonna be all right. He's just…been through, ah, a little bit of an ordeal," Stefan assured his girlfriend as he turned back at her.

Elena sighed. "I was just hoping that this carnival would reel him back into the land of high school teenager."

"Oh, is that what we're doing here?" Stefan asked her. Elena nodded.

"Yes. We all are. We're gonna be boring high school students who live in a world where the 'V' word is not uttered."

Claire frowned. "Well, I'm not a boring high school student, so…I think I'll just hit the Grill instead." She turned to leave, but as she did, her husband came up behind her and swung an arm around her waist, pulling her back to Stefan and Elena.

"Ah, ah, ah," Christopher scolded, holding her in place. "No wallowing at the Grill tonight. We may not be teenagers, but Elena has the right idea. We're going to spend an entire night without uttering the…what was it?"

"The 'V' word," Elena pointed at him in agreement. Christopher looked at Claire, who sighed.

"Right. The 'V' word doesn't exist tonight. Okay?"

"I would much rather enjoy a nice glass of bourbon," Claire murmured, displeased that she was being forced to work at a high school carnival. Christopher smiled.

"I never said alcohol's off the list _entirely_." Claire looked up at him to catch his smile, and she just laughed. Elena looked at Stefan with serious eyes.

"And while they're off doing that, you're gonna take me to the Ferris wheel, we're gonna ride to the very top, then you're gonna kiss me, and my heart will flutter like a normal high school girl," Elena demanded. "Do you see a running theme here?"

Stefan nodded. "Yeah. No, I'm seeing it, I'm…I'm…I'm _liking _it, but I have a quick question." The younger Salvatore turned his head to look around the circle of people at the lockers to ask the most dreaded question. "Um, what do we do about Damon?"

The instant Stefan said it, the two women in the group started to protest like crazy. While Claire groaned furiously, Elena held up a finger at her boyfriend. "Ah! No…'D' word, okay? That has been _deleted_ from the list of topics that we can discuss."

"Unfortunately, Katherine…showing up has him in a little bit of an odd place. A little off-kilter, kind of dangerous. Who knows what he's up to?"

"And who the hell cares?" Claire spat beside Stefan, refusing to accept the fact that they had to look after Damon like he was some sort of puppy dog. "He showed up drunk off his ass and killed Elena's brother. Let him _rot _if that's what he wants."

"You realize that you do _live _with the guy, don't you, Claire?" Stefan prompted. Claire shrugged.

"I figure I can go at least three days without running into him. And then, when I do, I can just ignore him and the process can repeat all over again. Trust me, I've worked out the math."

"How about we just…figure this all out later," Christopher suggested, looking around the circle. "Play it by year. Deal with Damon when we have to."

"I don't want to deal with him," Elena muttered, frowning. "I don't want to _look _at him. He killed my brother."

Stefan sighed, and he knew there was no argument for that. But he had to admit that he was worried—this couldn't be good for Damon's wellbeing. As much as Stefan tried to hate his brother, he couldn't.

So after dropping the conversation, Claire and Christopher went with Elena to help finish setting up for the evening to come, but Stefan decided to take off and go back to the house to feed and check on Damon. After grabbing a few animals to eat, Stefan found his brother in the parlor, pouring the contents of a blood bag into a nice, crystal glass.

"Would you care for one?" Damon almost sung.

"No," Stefan replied. "Thank you. I'm not hungry. Just ate."

Damon straightened with the blood in his hand and narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Aren't you worried that one day, _all _the forest animals are gonna band together and fight back?" He grinned. "I mean, surely they talk."

Stefan resisted the urge to laugh and redirected the conversation to Damon as the vampire took a sip out of his glass. "I'm just happy that's a, uh…a _blood bag _and not a sorority girl supplying your dinner."

Damon smirked and leaned on the back of a chair. "I like this. You…walking on eggshells around me because you think I'm gonna _explode. _It's very suspenseful. Is Claire worried, too?" Damon asked, causing Stefan to smile tightly and say nothing to avoid causing a fight with his brother. "I bet I'm your _every _conversation."

"I'll tell you what, Damon, she's been angry…but she's never been _this _angry." Damon's smile dropped and Stefan recognized it immediately. Moving on, he asked, "So, have you heard from Katherine?"

Damon's eyebrows knotted, and instead of answering the question, he made a complete one-eighty. "I think the Lockwoods have a family secret." Stefan tilted his head, amazed at his brother's topic change. "Because the Gilbert device affected them, vervain didn't. So they're not vampires…they're something else."

"Is this your new obsession?"

"Oh, you'd rather some unknown supernatural running rampant in our town, fine. I'll drop it."

Stefan nodded. "We haven't seen the last of Katherine. You do know that, right?" he blurted out, trying to get back to the topic at hand. Damon just smiled tightly. "We have _no _idea what she's up to."

The raven-haired vampire scoffed. "Sure, we do! She came back to profess her undying, eternal love for you."

"And Claire's sister? Amelia showing up at the same time Katherine can't just be a coincidence."

Damon frowned. "Amelia King is _harmless, _Stefan. And I'm sure she'd just trying to do the same thing as Katherine is. You're a very popular guy, if you didn't know."

"Damon, have you ever even _considered _that Katherine may be out to get Claire again? To finish what she started?" Damon and Stefan stayed in silence until Stefan spoke again, adding, "And not to mention the fact that she saw you kissed Claire. If she didn't want to kill her before, I'm _sure_ she does now."

"Katherine never cared about me, Stefan. It was always you," he spat. The younger brother crossed his arms. "She has no _reason_ to hurt Claire."

"It wasn't just about you, Damon. Katherine's jealous of her, not just because of your history but also because of who Claire _is_. She was always a threat," Stefan argued. Damon sighed and straightened from the back of his chair.

"Well, I'm just gonna let her husband take care of protecting her, then." Stefan hung his head, avoiding Damon's gaze as he realized how petty his brother was being. "Because I've got more important things to do, like…explode. Cheers!"

* * *

To Claire's surprise, the carnival was actually a good way to keep her mind off the rest of her tangled life. Thoughts of Damon, of Katherine, of Amelia, and of the possible failure of her marriage slipped out of her mind as she bossed a bunch of teenagers around, telling them what they were doing right and what they were doing wrong when it came to their booths. She walked around inside of the school, going down a mental checklist that Elena had informed her off earlier in the evening when the event started.

But as she was walking through the hallways, she found herself face-to-face with Damon and stepped back, unimpressed at his surprise presence. All of her anger came flooding back within her and only grew as she saw his smug smirk.

"Nice little shindig, huh?"

Trying not to growl or bark or hiss at him, even, Claire ignored Damon and tried to walk around him, but he sidestepped her and kept persisting.

"Oh, that's the way you're gonna play this?" he bellyached, earning a spark to ignite within Claire.

"I'm not _playing, _Damon. I'm _done _playing with you. Get out of my way before I _make _you get out of my way."

"Relax! I saw the ring on Jeremy's hand."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Sure you did." She moved around him, this time without interference, but Damon reached forward and grabbed her arm to spin her back.

"I _knew _he wasn't gonna really die, I was being dramatic!" he defended himself. Claire yanked her arm out of his hand.

"And you're a filthy _liar_!"

"Claire…" a reassuring voice appeared behind her, and Damon and Claire looked over her shoulder to see Christopher coming up one side and Stefan coming up the other. As Claire let out a sigh of relief and watched her husband as he walked up to them, Stefan eyed his brother with concern.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked Damon. A careless Damon shrugged and threw an arm over Claire's shoulder.

"Stuff," he sung, but Claire slapped his arm off of her shoulder so it fell to his displeasure.

"Go do your 'stuff' somewhere else, Damon, and get out of my sight," Claire snapped. Damon just smirked and walked away willingly, never once losing the bounce in his step. When he was gone, Claire turned around at Stefan and Christopher, who were eyeing her to make sure she was okay. "What? I could've done worse."

"How about we get you that bourbon?" Christopher offered, extending a hand. "We can take a little break."

"If I take a break, I might _explode_," Claire muttered under her breath, irritated just at the thought of Damon's presence. She sighed eventually and looked up at Christopher. "But the bourbon wouldn't hurt. What is Damon even doing here? He was supposed to be at home with his smug, despicable self _away _from me."

Stefan exhaled largely. "Oh, he seems to be convinced the Lockwoods have some sort of weird family secret."

Claire thought to herself for a minute, but then she sighed. "Oh, _God, _I hate to admit this, but he's probably right. I mean, Mayor Lockwood was taken down to the basement where the vampires burned even though the vervain didn't affect him, but the Gilbert device apparently did."

The vampire teenager shrugged. "Well, I'm staying out of it. I'm gonna be a nice, boring teenager."

Claire frowned. "And if Damon hurts someone else while trying to find the truth? He needs a babysitter." She looked back and forth between Christopher and Stefan. "And I'm not doing it."

Christopher and Stefan looked at each other, one of them realizing that they were going to have to decide which one went to go look after Damon. Eventually, Stefan sighed and realized that it was his responsibility, as much as he hated it.

"I'll…I'll go," he promised, passing the football in his hand over to Christopher, who took it without much of a choice. Before he could get one step towards where Damon had headed, Elena appeared beside him.

"Can you take a break?" She sighed at her boyfriend. "I'm in _desperate _need of a Ferris wheel escape right now."

"Sorry," Stefan apologized to the human, giving her a sad smile. "I have to go deal with…the 'D' word." With a quick kiss, Stefan left Elena's side and walked off to go find Damon. Elena looked after him with a scowl on her face, and she turned to Christopher and Claire for clarification.

"Damon's _here_?" Claire nodded. "Why?"

"He's suspicious of the Lockwoods," Christopher filled in, tossing the football back and forth in his hand out of habit. "So, naturally, he's on a hunt for answers."

"And why is Stefan going after him?"

Claire scoffed. "Well, Elena, do you really think Damon can _handle _conducting an investigation on his own? There's no doubt that he'd end up having some sort of collateral damage at the end of the day."

Elena stood quietly, thinking over the idea, and Claire could see that the human knew her vampire superior was right. Eventually, Elena sighed. "Fine. Fine, I guess it'll have to be okay. Can you do me a favor, though? The ring toss is out of the Team Jacob t-shirts and Bart and Homer dolls. Can you grab them from the classroom that has the extra supplies and bring them to Bonnie?"

"Sure," Claire agreed, and Elena thanked her before walking off to continue her circle around for things she could fix.

"You want to start heading over to get the prizes?" Christopher offered after Elena had left them. Claire shook her head.

"No. First, I want that drink I was promised."

* * *

After compelling one of the carnival workers to attack Tyler Lockwood and tired of seeing Stefan's judgmental expression, Damon took a moment for himself and walked off to take a breather. He was walking down a desolate hallway when he heard footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see who it was that was following his path. To his surprise, Damon found Caroline standing before him freshly dressed and presentable for the people at school.

"Oh. Hey, Blondie," Damon greeted her, his body half-turned. Caroline said nothing, but a small smile twitched at her lips. He sensed something off about her, but he couldn't put a finger on it. "They let you out?"

With a small smirk, Damon turned on his heel and began to walk again in the opposite direction, but Caroline's voice called him back. "I remember."

Annoyed, Damon entertained his ex-girlfriend by turning around and sighing, "What do you remember?"

"I remember how you…manipulated me," Caroline began, stepping forward. Damon's smile slowly disintegrated as she continued after crossing her arms. "You pushed me around. _Abused _me. Erased my memories. _Fed _on me!"

Scoffing, Damon decided that she was being overdramatic. It was impossible; she couldn't remember. "You're crazy."

"Well, the memories have been coming back. In pieces." Tired of the accusation, Damon turned around from trying to walk out of the hallway to set the teenager straight.

"You _can't _remember." He shrugged. "It's impossible. I mean, unless you were becoming a…" Damon trailed off as he slowly started to piece it together—Claire's blood, Caroline's memories returning…

"I have a message from Katherine," Caroline began as she stepped forward to be face-to-face with Damon. The dark-haired vampire straightened and swallowed at the recognition of how this all happened. It was a game changer. "She said, "Game on'."

Caroline turned to leave, but Damon grabbed her arm. "Wait—"

Before Damon could get a second word out, Caroline took him by surprise and snapped, sending him flying across the hallway so fast that he landed on the cold tile floor with a thud. He propped himself up on his elbows and stared at the feminist newborn vampire in front of him.

"You _suck_."

Confused, Damon didn't bother getting back at Caroline for her surprise attack. Instead, he just watched as Caroline turned and strutted out of the hallway with high vampire pride. Exhausted, Damon moved over onto his side and hit his head against the tile floor trying to collect his thoughts. As if he didn't have enough problems.

"Well, that's gonna be a problem," another female said, and immediately, Damon rolled up to see Claire and Christopher standing at end of the hallway closest to him, holding a box of t-shirts and dolls.

Damon growled on the floor, "You think?"

"Oh, get up," Claire chastised as Damon pulled himself up from the floor. "You're fine. She's been a vampire for, like, a _day_."

"She took me by surprise," Damon defended himself as he brushed his all-black ensemble off. Claire rolled her eyes. "We need to get Stefan. And Elena."

"She's not really a fan of yours right now," Christopher protested, scoffing. "None of us are, really."

"Yeah, well, she's gonna have to deal with it," Damon barked as he brushed past the couple. "You two go find her. I'll get Stefan. We're gonna need to sort this out…_now_."

"Sort this out?" Claire repeated, but Damon was already halfway down the hallway before she could get an answer. Biting down on her cheek, she sighed. "Does he even know how to pronounce the word 'please'?" she asked her husband rhetorically, and he sighed just as frustrated as she was.

The couple found Elena at one of the club tables, making sure their inventory would be good for the rest of the carnival length. She was checking off things on a clipboard as she went, but the second she saw Claire and Christopher, she gave them a small smile. However, seeing the box of prizes being carried by Christopher, she frowned.

"I thought I said to take those to Bonnie…" Elena trailed off, confused. Christopher set the prizes down on the table while Claire sighed.

"We know. But we really need you to come with us right now," Christopher told her seriously.

Elena arched an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

Claire shook her head. "Not here, Elena."

Curious and partially frightened by Claire's urgency, Elena dropped her things and complied. Minutes later, Stefan, Damon, Claire, Christopher, and Elena were all standing in Alaric's classroom. Elena was standing at the window ceil, reeling over the information she'd just been told about her best friend, Stefan was pacing between Damon and Elena, Damon was leaning against Alaric's desk, Claire was sitting on one of the desks, and Christopher was beside her.

"How did this happen, hmm?" Stefan asked openly as he paced.

"Well, Claire fed her blood and Katherine obviously killed her," Damon shot. "And 'A' plus 'B' equals…"

"But _why_?" Elena pressured him, her voice broken. Damon's eyes cut to hers.

"Because Katherine is a manipulative, _nasty _little slut," Damon snapped. It surprised Claire, honestly, that Damon was talking so vilely about the woman he spent 145 years infatuated with. Stefan was right; Katherine had completely _ruined _Damon.

"And she said 'Game on'?" Stefan vented aloud. "I mean, what does that even _mean_?"

"It means she's playing dirty. She wants us to know."

"Do you think my sister could be a part of it?" Claire asked, her eyes sweeping across the room to everyone inside. "I mean…it's no coincidence they just show up at the same time."

"Claire," Christopher muttered beside her, and she looked over at her husband to see him thinking hard, all the wheels turning in his head. His eyebrows nodded as he looked up at everyone else. "What if it was _Katherine _who turned Amelia?"

Damon scoffed. "That would mean Katherine would've had to turn her in 1865, but she was in Mystic Falls at that time."

Claire shook her head and the wheels began to turn inside of her head. "No…No, Amelia's birthday is in May. Katherine would've had at _least _three months after the church burned down to turn her." Silence enveloped the room before Claire gasped. "Do you think she turned her…because of me?"

Damon shrugged. "It's a definite possibility. She hates you."

"Oh, my God," Elena whispered, turning herself as she began to work out the logic in her head. "It was…it was _Claire's _blood that turned Caroline. Is that why Katherine killed her? To get revenge on Claire?"

Claire shook her head. "It's all just one big game to…prove she's just the Queen Bitch." She looked at everyone in the room. "Caroline must be…losing her _mind _right now. We have to help her. She has no idea what's happening."

"Oh, I think she does," Damon retorted, scoffing. "All of my compulsion from the past started wearing off the minute she was in transition."

"We have to find her," Stefan insisted.

"Yep," Damon agreed, sighing. "And kill her."

Elena looked at Damon with disgust immediately. "You're not gonna kill Caroline!"

"She knows who we are! She's _officially _a liability. We gotta get rid of her," Damon reasoned, but Elena didn't listen to him. Instead, she went over to Stefan to get him to back her up on it.

"Damon, _absolutely _not," Stefan argued.

"Need I remind you of a tragic little story of a girl named Vicki Donovan?" Damon recalled. Stefan and Elena fell silent. "Yeah. Caroline, of all people, will _not _make it as a vampire. Her mother's a vampire hunter! Guys, come on! We all know how this story ends, so let's just flip to the last chapter and—"

"Damon!" Claire snapped as she jumped off of the desk and landed on her feet. "We're not killing her. My blood _made _her. It's not an option."

"No?" Damon retorted and glanced over at his brother, who was hanging his head in thought. When Stefan said nothing, Damon accused, "Your silence is _deafening_, Stefan. Wait, wasn't there a school carnival the _night _you staked Vicki?" He scoffed. "Talk about a town where history repeats itself. You know I'm right."

An angry Stefan rocked back and forth before he got up from the window ceil and walked over to his brother. Pointing a finger in his face, he said sternly, "We're _not _gonna kill her."

When he left, Elena left, and Damon shrugged at the human who ducked and practically ran past him. As Claire and Christopher went after them, Damon tried one last time. "It's the only way…"

But they were long gone, and Damon sighed to himself seeing that no one was on his side. Instead of dwelling on his loneliness, Damon walked outside to hunt for the blonde vampire before Claire, Christopher, Stefan, and Elena could get to her. The high school teenagers on the property of the school were laughing and screaming, having fun with their pathetic human lives, but Damon paid no attention to it. He listened in for Caroline, and as he did, he saw a wooden stake out of the corner of his eye holding down part of a tent. Carelessly, he walked over to it and pulled the stake out of the ground, ready to use it as a weapon.

"Why is she _doing _this to me?" Claire grumbled as she and Christopher scowered the high school campus for any sign of the blonde vampire. They had split from Elena and Stefan so they could cover more ground, and though Claire knew that Damon was wrong about what they should do, he was right about what was going to happen. It was one of the reasons she'd never made a vampire. "It's been 145 years! And she's had plenty of chances to come after me, but she hasn't! Why now?"

"Because you have something that she doesn't, Claire," Christopher said to her as he looked around the crowd of people to search for Caroline. Claire did the same. "You have people that you can count on and a place to call home. Katherine's never had that; she's _jealous _of you."

"There's nothing to be jealous of!" Claire practically scoffed as she desperately listened into the crowd to find Caroline. "_She's _the one that everyone falls in love with. _She's _the one who everyone would do everything for! She has everyone fawning all over her like she's some sort of...siren or something—"

"Claire." Christopher pulled her to a stop and tightened his grip around her shoulders. She exhaled to relax as he stared at her with a small smile. "You're _better _than her, and for that, she hates you. You're everything she is and _more_."

Claire was silent for a while, but she shook her head. "Yeah, well…I don't really feel like that's a good thing right now." She looked around and Christopher removed his arms from her shoulders and straightened, and they both listened to try to find the blonde newborn they were looking for. Eventually, the scent of blood overwhelmed their senses, and the two vampires looked at each other knowingly and took off in the direction of the scent.

* * *

Caroline sat beside the dead body she'd drained, sobbing. She had no idea what was happening to her or how she was going to stop it. Blood coated her entire mouth, nose, and chin, and her makeup was running big time. She had no will to move, but she hard the person approach her from the side and didn't even care enough to make a scene when she saw it was Damon. Without lifting her eyes, she sniffed.

"He's dead," she informed Damon, her voice bland. "I killed him." Damon nodded beside her in understanding, and he knew he had been right about her. She wouldn't be able to last. Caroline sobbed harder. "What's wrong with me?"

"Hey…hey, it's okay," Damon soothed her, rubbing her back for comfort while Caroline sobbed more. "I can help you."

"You can?"

"Yeah, of course." Truth be told, Claire should be the one helping her. She was Caroline's sire, after all. But she had the wrong idea—she wanted to keep Caroline, to train her. Damon knew that was a lost cause.

"What are you going to do?" Caroline asked tentatively.

"The _only _thing I can do." Damon nodded at her reassuringly as he brushed a piece of sticky blonde hair out of Caroline's face. "I'm gonna kill you." His thumb brushed over the wooden stake in his hand and his fingers traced the strands of hair on Caroline's forehead.

"What?" Caroline hopped off of the back of the truck where the dead body lay and she came face-to-face with Damon, sobbing. "Please…please don't. I don't _want _to die!"

"Yeah, but you're already dead," Damon reasoned.

"No, I'm not!" Caroline snapped. "Don't say that! Okay? Just help me."

Damon saw no point in arguing—no sane vampire would accept their death. "Okay."

"Okay? Just…help me, please…please, please, please," Caroline said desperately as Damon kept agreeing for her sake. Damon just reached forward and pulled the blonde newborn into a hug and rubbed circles into her back, trying to soothe her with hushes and notes that it would be fine.

"It's the _only _way," Damon whispered as he rose the stake up high to kill her, but before he could move, he felt someone knock him back. Stefan stood in front of Damon while the wooden stake fell to the concrete beside Damon's feet. "Stefan!" Damon groaned.

Elena immediately went to Caroline to try to help her, but Caroline pushed Elena back with angst. "Get away from me! You killed me!" she cried.

"No, no, no, no, Caroline! That wasn't me," Elena rushed out. "You know that. That was Katherine."

"No! Then why does she look like you? Why—why did she do this to me?" Caroline sobbed. From the other side of her, Claire and Christopher appeared. While Christopher went to help Stefan handle Damon, Claire gripped Caroline by her shoulders softly.

"Caroline? Caroline, do you remember me?" Claire asked softly, looking into Caroline's crazed vampire eyes. Caroline nodded.

"C-Claire? You were the one that healed me. At the hospital. You…you gave me your _blood_."

Claire nodded, and she swallowed down something thick. "I know. I know, Caroline, and I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that this happened to you." Caroline sobbed more, and Claire looked over at the trio of males facing each other head-on. "Stefan! Christopher! We need to get her inside. Get her cleaned up."

Stefan nodded and backed away with his eyes still locked on Damon. "Okay. Caroline, it's gonna be all right. Just stay close to Claire."

"She will die," Damon said coldly to the vampires eyeing him. "It's only a matter of time."

"Yeah, maybe so, but it's not gonna happen tonight," Stefan told his brother firmly.

"Oh, yeah it is." Quickly, Damon flashed down and grabbed the wooden stake in his hand and moved over to Caroline in the blink of an eye, ready to kill. Instead, Claire stood between him and the newborn, her body shielding Caroline from any harm. The wooden stake was pointed just over her shoulder, and she could feel the heat from Damon's body on hers. Claire didn't flinch once and her eyes held Damon's sternly.

"Go ahead, Damon, kill her. But the only way you're getting to her is if you get through _me _first," Claire snapped, absolutely positive that he wouldn't drive that stake through her. Damon wavered, but he then flipped the stake around so it was nestled in his clenched hand and he pointed at her accusingly.

"Whatever happens, it's on _you_," he reminded her, and Claire just stood strong as he backed away and left. The second he was gone, Claire turned around to Stefan and Caroline.

"Let's go. We need a bathroom or something to get all the blood off." She turned around to her husband and the human who were standing beside the truck. "Can you two take care of the body?"

"Yeah. I've got it," Christopher told her with a reassuring nod, but before anything could continue, they all heard a whisper behind them. Stefan was trying to tug Caroline into the school at that time, but he was stopped short.

"Caroline?" Claire, Elena, and Christopher all turned to see Bonnie standing a few feet away from Caroline, looking at her in disbelief. Caroline bowed her head in shame, but the picture was damning. Caroline had blood all over her. "No. You're not…you can't be."

Bonnie rushed up to her friend and grasped her arm tightly, and a look of realization and fright crossed the witch's face.

"Bonnie?" Caroline whispered, confused as she watched Bonnie's eyes flood with disappointment. "I…I…"

"Oh, God!" Bonnie exclaimed, rushing over to the dead body on the back of the truck.

"Bonnie," Caroline whined, turning around. Claire shook her head at the newborn.

"Come on, Caroline. Come on." She pushed her in the other direction, and Claire and Stefan took the sobbing Caroline into the bathroom outhouses on the school campus. Immediately upon entering the bathroom, Stefan grabbed as many paper towels as he could and Claire hit the water to get it running and brushed Caroline's stringy hair off her shoulders. Caroline leaned over the sink and sobbed, avoiding her appearance in the mirror. Stefan turned around and Claire wet the paper towels while she worked upon getting the blood off of Caroline's mouth. Caroline rocked back and forth, though, making it hard for Claire. "It's okay, Caroline. Shh…it's gonna be okay."

"She hates me," Caroline whimpered, crying. "Bonnie hates me."

"No, no, no. She's just in shock. We all are, okay?" Stefan tried, helping Claire with the blood cleanup.

Caroline's breathing was ragged. "And what about Matt? What—what am I gonna do about Matt…"

"One thing at a time, Caroline. One thing at a time," Claire urged as she and Stefan gathered more paper towels to get the rich substance off of the newborn's face. "Right now, we just need to get this blood off of you. Come on."

Stefan threw away the paper towels that were dirty and Claire gave Caroline more wet ones that the blonde could use to clean herself. Caroline dabbed at her hands to get the vital liquid off of her and, while she did so, she breathed out, "I'm a…I'm a _murderer_. I'm a _monster_."

"You're not a monster, Caroline. This has happened to all of us. You'll learn how to get better at it," Claire assured her, dabbing at some dry blood on the ends of Caroline's hair.

"Your emotions are heightened right now. It's part of the transformation," Stefan informed Caroline as he cleaned her mouth. "It's _completely _normal, I promise you. All right?"

But Caroline was breathing so heavily and thinking so hard about the fact that she was a monster that her veins started to appear and her eyes went bloodshot. Frustrated, the teenager turned around to avoid her reflection and she groaned. "Why does this keep happening to my _face_? I'm—I'm _hideous_!" she wept.

"Caroline, look up here. Look at me. Look. Look," Claire said desperately, shaking the newborn's shoulders. Caroline removed her bloody hands from her face and looked up at Claire through raccoon eyes that were full of tears. "Look at my face. It's not just you, I promise."

Claire let her eyes turn, and she felt the hungry veins slither beneath her eyes. The rims of her eyes went bloodshot, and Caroline's weeping stopped as she saw that she wasn't the only one that had that problem. Caroline sniffed, and Claire let the face stay on longer than it's ever been when she wasn't feeding on someone.

"You see that, Caroline?" The blonde nodded. "It happens to me, too. All you have to do is _breathe. _You can't let it _control _you. You have to relax, keep yourself in check. Watch me." She let her vampire face fade and then she made it reappear again and fade once more. At this point, Caroline had stopped crying, and Claire's voice had dropped to a whisper. "You see that? Now try it yourself. Just breathe…in and out."

Caroline took a deep breath in, a deep breath out, and Claire did the same to help the newborn get accustomed to it. Eventually, Caroline's face disappeared, and her eyes fluttered closed as she relaxed. When Caroline's eyes opened, she found herself staring at Claire, who had let a smile onto her face.

"That's it, Caroline. There you go." she said proudly.

Caroline sighed and, after a while, she spoke. "Why did Katherine do this to me?"

Claire's eyes drifted up to Stefan, who was observing his friend helping another vampire besides him, for once. When Claire's eyes flickered down to Caroline, she swallowed. "Caroline, there are a lot of reasons that I'm sure would make a lot of sense. The truth of the matter is that we don't _really _know." Caroline's gaze dropped. "But I promise you that no harm will come to you. Stefan and I will help you. Okay?"

"Okay," Caroline said, on the verge of tears again. Claire pulled her closer and Caroline wrapped her hands around the other blonde female and buried her head into the comforting shoulder. Claire sighed against Caroline and looked up at Stefan, who was nodding reassuringly, but Claire wasn't so reassured. She'd never made vampires before and the only person she'd ever tried to help was Stefan.

She just hoped she could, somehow, pull it all off.

* * *

After taking care of Caroline and making sure that she was going to be okay, Christopher found a sulking Claire with a bottle of bourbon in her hand sitting on top of the BMW they had acquired together when realizing that they needed a car for themselves. He sighed as he approached her, and she put the bourbon bottle down in her lap.

"Is the body taken care of?"

"Yep." Christopher climbed onto the car's hood with her, careful of his shoes. Claire passed him the bourbon bottle. "Stefan and I buried it in the woods behind the school." He took a swig of the alcohol.

Claire sighed. "I promised Caroline I'd drive her home, but she's just taking a moment to herself. She should be out any minute now."

"Okay." Christopher passed the alcohol back to her. "Do you want me to follow you so you can have a ride home?"

Claire shook her head. "No. I'll be fine; I'll just walk or something. I need some fresh air." She sighed again and took a swig of alcohol from the bottle. After wiping drops that had managed to escape her mouth, Claire continued, "I've…never turned another vampire before, you know. Damon's done it…countless times. I think Stefan's done it once or twice over the years, but I never really wanted to do it. It seemed like too much work."

"Well, Stefan said you did a great job with Caroline," Christopher praised her. Claire scoffed. "Seriously. Claire, you'll be fine. If she turns out to be even a _quarter _of what you are..." Christopher smiled, and Claire just rolled her eyes at him in amusement. He admired her and watched as she took a swig from the alcohol. "Trust me, Caroline is in great hands."

"He's right." Claire and Christopher turned their heads to see Damon walking down to the parking lot to get ready to go home. They were both silent, but Damon came to a stop a few feet from their car. "If anyone's gonna be able to get her under control, it'll be you. But I'm still not convinced she'll work out."

No one said a thing—not Claire, not Christopher, not Damon. Claire just slid off of the car hood and walked over to Damon, who was watching her with suspicion and confusion. He expected her to tell him to leave…to yell at him some more or something harmless like that, but what she did _wasn't _harmless.

She drew her hand back and slapped so hard that Damon nearly stumbled as his cheek turned, but he kept himself stationary with a tremendous amount of effort. Things were drop-dead silent after the sharp stinging sound of the slap, but Claire didn't clarify the reason for the slap this time. Instead, Damon could see it in her eyes. She had a cold trace to them, something that was unforgettable. He knew, somehow, that he would have some sort of nightmare about it. It cut through his skin like a blade, and her silence was even worse.

Claire was a _vocal _person, so when her voice wasn't used, it was serious.

With a menacing glare, she bumped Damon's shoulder and walked off towards the high school to get Caroline so they could leave, and Damon was left with a stinging sensation reeling in his cheek. Christopher said nothing to Damon, either, but merely slid off the car, climbed inside, and took off for the boarding house, leaving Damon in an empty parking space.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please! A little note: This will not be updated next week. I'm taking a one-week break :)**


	17. Bad Moon Rising

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Bad Moon Rising**

"Thanks for coming, Ric," Stefan greeted the history teacher as Alaric strolled into the vast Salvatore foyer and looked around at the luxurious mansion-like home. Damon shut the door behind Alaric and sighed.

"Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Bourbon? Bourbon in your coffee?" Damon walked ahead of Alaric and into the parlor where Stefan, Elena, Claire, and Christopher were all lounging in, waiting for Alaric's arrival. They were all waiting to ask Alaric questions about Isobel, who they all presumed knew about the Lockwoods' secret.

"Uh, Elena mentioned you needed my help?" Alaric urged, ignoring Damon's offer. Damon gestured for him to sit.

"Yeah. We were, uh, hoping you could help shed some light on the Lockwood family," Stefan asked slowly as Ric sat down on the couch across from the one he, Elena, and Claire were sitting on. Damon took his seat in the separate armchair and Christopher was sitting on the arm of the couch that was next to Claire, finding no preference to sit.

"Now why would I know anything about the Lockwoods?"

"You might not, but Isobel might've," Christopher pointed out.

"Isobel's research, from when you guys were at Duke together," Elena clarified for her teacher. Stefan pulled himself to lean on his knees.

"You said that she had spent years researching this town?"

"Isobel's research here in…Mystic Falls were rooted in folklore and legend," Alaric explained. "At the time, I thought most of which was fiction."

"Like that amazing vampire story," Damon taunted with a smirk, causing Alaric to smile just the slightest. Claire sighed.

"Well since Isobel's research was _obviously _not fiction, anything else that she found besides the existence of vampires could help," the blonde offered, giving Alaric a ballpark to work in. Alaric took only a moment of hesitation before giving an answer.

"The lycanthrope."

Every single vampire in the room looked at each other, the word repeating in their head and the danger that came along with it.

"Wait. Like werewolves?" Elena asked, putting the knees that were to her chest on the ground as she leaned forward in curiosity. Before Alaric could respond, Damon spoke up as he leaned forward in his own chair.

"No way. Impossible. _Way _too Lon Chaney."

Stefan looked to the side at his brother. "Is it?'

Damon looked up at Stefan with an irritated look, detesting the fact that he was being questioned. "I've been on this planet 160-some odd years and I've never come across one." He looked over at Alaric. "If werewolves exist, where the hell are they?"

"Well, why do you suspect the Lockwoods?" Ric questioned, turning the interrogation around.

"Because vervain didn't effect the mayor on Founder's Day, but the Gilbert device did. And it effected his son, Tyler," Damon replied pointedly.

After Damon was done, Stefan added, "And, at the school carnival, his uncle, Mason, exhibited inhuman behavior when he fought one of the carnival workers. It suggested some sort of a supernatural entity."

"We were hoping that Isobel's research could…help us figure out what it is," Elena began, getting to the real point of the conversation: the favor.

"Well, all of her things are still at Duke." Alaric cleared his throat. "I mean, her office is still there. She's _technically_ still missing."

"So can we get access to it?" Damon questioned, but Ric was still reluctant to come up with a reply for them all. "Ric, we need to know what we're dealing with. If this 'wolf man' thing is true, I've seen enough movies to know it's _not _good. It means that Mason Lockwood is a real-life Lon Chaney and that little Tyler punk may just very well be Lon Chaney Jr. Which means Bela Lugosi, meaning me, is totally screwed."

* * *

"But I thought you were going to show me how to feed _first_," Caroline complained as she and Claire sat down in her room and discussed the plans they were forced to cancel.

Though Claire was determined to help Caroline since her blood made the young vampire, Stefan had suggested that he tried getting Caroline on animal blood first and, if that didn't work out, Claire could teach Caroline how to feed like a normal vampire. But this also meant that Claire had to go on the trip with Damon, Elena, and Alaric, which she wasn't looking forward to because of one _irritating _vampire she just couldn't seem to avoid.

"I know." Claire's voice was entirely apologetic. She sat down in the dark room, which had been completely sealed from the light that shone outside from the day. "But Stefan thinks it's a good idea for you to try animals first. And…well, that's not my style."

Caroline wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I don't want to feed from animals, though."

Claire shrugged. "Well, just try it once. If you don't like it, I can show you how to control your hunger on blood bags."

After a few moments, Caroline groaned. "Fine. I'll try it." She paused and looked longingly at the window. "How long do I have to stay in here?"

Claire shook her head. "Not long. Stefan's going to talk Bonnie into making you a daylight ring. He and Christopher will bring her over after we leave for the Duke campus."

Unlike Damon, Elena, Claire, and Alaric, Stefan and Christopher had decided to stay back. First of all, they didn't have enough room in the car. Secondly, _someone_ had to stay behind and make sure nothing out of the ordinary happened in Mystic Falls while they were gone. Alaric wasn't quite sure whether or not they'd be back by nightfall, so he had everyone pack an extra set of clothes and essentials just in case.

Caroline looked down at Claire's hands, searching for a daylight ring, but then she saw the large rock on her sire's hands and gasped. "Holy _crap_! Is _that _your daylight ring? Do I get one of those?"

Claire raised her eyebrows and looked down at her left hand where Caroline was pointing to the set of wedding rings on her left ring finger. She almost forgot they were there, quite honestly. After slapping Damon the night before, she'd gone home and made a decision—there was going to be no more skirting around this "marriage" thing. She fit the rings on her finger and vowed not to take them off because she _wanted _the marriage to work.

It was the first time in a long time where she _truly _wanted something.

Absently, Claire laughed. "What? No. That's my wedding ring set." Claire pulled her daylight ring off of her right hand and showed it to Caroline. "_This_ is my daylight ring."

Caroline frowned, disappointed. "Well…can my daylight ring be an engagement ring?"

Claire shrugged. "Not unless Stefan wants to buy you an engagement ring." Before they could continue the conversation, there was a knock on the door. Claire and Caroline both turned their heads, and Claire raised an eyebrow before looking back at Caroline. "Who's that?"

Caroline's shoulders rose and fell, confused herself, and she swung herself off of her bed to go answer the door. Claire followed the cautious Caroline and the knock sounded again as Caroline pushed open one of the French doors in her home. But she stopped short at a panel of light that shone across the carpet and was sure to burn her if she stepped in it.

"Caroline?" a voice called out at the door. Caroline's face turned down.

"Who is it?" Claire asked again, coming up in front of Caroline right in the line of sun. Caroline's expression was somber.

"It's Matt," she whispered, but then caught sight of Claire's daylight ring. Matt knocked again. Suddenly, Caroline perked up with an idea. "Claire? Can I have your ring? For, like, _two _minutes?"

Claire looked back and forth between the door and Caroline, but then she realized something. Matt Donovan was a _human, _she knew that much. Caroline wasn't equipped to handle it, and Claire knew that if she let Caroline try it with her daylight ring that she could potentially be stuck without being able to help. With no other option than to risk everything on a newborn vampire who was most likely not going to be able to control herself, Claire shook her head.

"Caroline, you can't. I'm sorry, but it's too risky." Caroline made a noise of disapproval and complaint, but Claire turned to the door. "I'll…I'll handle it, okay?"

"Seriously?! Claire, come on..."

Claire didn't listen to her, nor did she turn back. Caroline was stuck at the French doors, unable to get out of the darkness, and Claire heard the blonde sigh heavily and sit down on the floor in defeat. Claire opened the door just wide enough for her to squeeze through, and on the porch, Matt cut himself off from saying Caroline's name again as he watched Claire step out and shut the door behind her.

"…Claire, right?" he asked, recalling her name from the hospital. She nodded. "Uh, is Caroline in there?"

"You know, she's actually out," Claire lied, giving him an apologetic smile. "But you can try again later or something."

Matt raised his eyebrows. "Well, she said she was at home."

Claire inhaled sharply and scrambled for an excuse. "Yeah, well…she had a really important errand to run. Some…uh, sale at the mall. Do you need me to give her a message?"

Matt opened his mouth to tell her what he wanted Caroline to know, but he eventually sighed outwardly. "No. No, I'm good. But thanks."

"Yeah. Sure, no problem."

Claire watched as the young, good-looking human walked off Caroline's front porch and started walking away from the house. The second he left Claire's presence, he pulled out the phone and dialed Caroline to leave a message. Sighing, Claire walked back into Caroline's house and shut the door. Caroline was, indeed, sitting on the floor twiddling her thumbs. Claire gave the young vampire a small smile.

"Bonnie will be here with a daylight ring, soon. I promise."

Caroline got up from the floor. "What about you? Are you leaving now?"

Claire nodded and grabbed her jacket that she had put on the couch in the living room when she entered the house. "Mmhmm. I've got to get going. But I'll be sure to check in with Stefan, okay? You don't have to tell him the truth if you don't want to, but when I get back, you can tell me and we can see where it goes from there. Are you gonna be okay for a while until Stefan shows up?"

Caroline nodded weakly. "Yeah. I'll be fine, I guess."

Claire smiled. "Well, you can text me if you need something. I'll see you later, Caroline."

"Bye." And so Claire left, leaving Caroline alone to herself until Stefan could come over and get started on the animal training with her. Claire didn't think it was a good idea to have Caroline start out on animal blood, but she was willing to give it a try. She knew Caroline wasn't too happy about it, but that just made _two _of them foresee a bad day.

Luckily for her, Caroline's house was only a little ways away from Elena's. When she got to the Gilbert house, she found Stefan, Elena, Christopher, Alaric, and Damon out in front of the house. Elena threw her bag into the car while she also threw an evil glance to Damon. After saying goodbye to Stefan, Elena climbed into the car without a second look at the elder Salvatore. Claire found it entirely amusing.

"Make sure she doesn't kill him before you guys get back," Christopher murmured to Claire as she approached the car. Claire scoffed.

"Easier said than done," she told him. He smiled at her.

"Your stuff's already in the car, so you're all set. Have…fun?" He said the last word with confusion and an adorable smile that made Claire laugh.

"Sorry you can't come too, Chris," a voice interrupted them. Claire looked over to see Damon with a smug smile on his face, watching them as he leaned up against the car. She, however, was unamused at his childish comment and dropped her smile completely.

With a look that resembled Elena's earlier one, Claire reached around Christopher's face and pulled her lips to his, capturing his undivided attention. Damon squinted, not because of the sunlight, but because of the disgust and hurt he felt inside of him. What hurt even more was when he saw the glare from the diamond ring on her left ring finger. There was a very _jealous _part inside of him that he absolutely despised, and he couldn't stand to bare it any longer.

"Okay. Time to go."

Damon spun around and gracefully stepped into the car's passenger seat without one glance back at Claire or Christopher, who watched him. Christopher sighed and looked back at his wife.

"_You're_ probably going to be the one to kill him, won't you?"

"Yep." Claire looked over his shoulder to Stefan, who was waiting for the car to leave. She looked back and forth between the two. "If anything goes wrong with Caroline today, call me."

"We will," Stefan assured her, nodding. "But she'll be fine. I promise."

Claire nodded as well, and after giving a hug to Stefan, she climbed into the car door that was held open for her by her friend and she moved to sit next to Elena. The second Claire was in the car, Alaric put the car in drive and started off to the Duke campus.

The extensive car ride was relatively quiet. Music from the stereo played in the background, but no one really talked. Alaric was focused on the road, Damon was focused on being Damon, and Claire and Elena were purposely not talking because they both knew that one way or another, Damon would fit himself into the conversation.

"How are you two doing back there?" Damon asked the two of them, looking behind the front seats to the vampire and the human in the back. He could see Elena purposely avoid his gaze, and Damon rolled his eyes. "You know, Elena, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a _little_ silly."

Alaric scoffed from the driver's seat. "I don't think she's pretending. You did kill her brother."

"There is a _huge _asterisk next to that statement. He came back to life!"

"Yeah. Thanks to a ring that you didn't know he was wearing," Elena commented snidely. Damon groaned.

"Why are you so sure I didn't know?" Damon questioned her validly, earning Elena's attention. But she knew what he was going to say and how untrue it was.

"Did you?"

"Yes."

Her eyes thinned. "You're _lying_."

"Elena, I saw the ring!" Damon argued, trying to convince her of what she was not believing. Elena turned her head and refused to talk to him any longer. "It's a big, tacky thing. It's hard to miss."

Alaric examined his own ring in the front seat while Damon waited for a response from one of the two females from the back. Eventually, Claire just shook her head in disbelief at the complexity of the elder Salvatore. He never did learn when to quit. Then again, neither did she.

"Doesn't your mouth ever get tired of spitting out lies?"

"Doesn't _your _mouth ever get tired of kissing guys?" Claire scoffed, unimpressed with Damon's petty remark. Damon, however, was done with the back and forth game. "I told you and I'll tell you again, Claire. I saw the ring."

"You're forgetting that I was _there_! You never looked at his hand—not once," the vampire accused. "Why can't you just admit that you didn't see the ring?"

"Because I saw it, Claire!" She scoffed again and rolled her eyes, and that was the end of that conversation.

It was one thing for Damon to have killed Jeremy and it was another for him to lie blatantly about seeing the ring on his hand. So, no matter how much he tried to catch her attention the entire ride out to Duke, she wouldn't talk to him. Making up with Damon Salvatore was not on her to-do list and it wasn't going to be on it any time soon.

Alaric soon pulled up to the Duke campus, which was pretty and lively, covered in blossoming flowers and rich green grass. They walked into a building on campus, following Alaric inside of an office in a single-file line.

"So Isobel was officially employed by the anthropology department given that most paranormal phenomena is rooted in folklore." He rounded a corner to see a woman standing at a filing cabinet. "Excuse me. Hi, I'm Alaric Saltzman. I called earlier?"

Hearing this, the woman immediately recalled Alaric. She shut the filing cabinet with a smile and walked up to him before shaking his hand. "Yes, ah, of course. I'm Vanessa Monroe, research assistant—comparative folklore." Vanessa's eyes trailed over Damon, Elena, and Claire with a strange look, and the three were slightly confused to what made them so intriguing. Without skipping another beat, Vanessa got back on task. "Uh, let me just grab Isobel's keys."

Thinking that her strange looks had to deal with his visitors not being properly introduced, Alaric gestured to them. "I'm sorry, these are my friends, Claire, Damon, and Elena. I hope this isn't too much of an imposition."

Vanessa scoffed. "Please. Isobel's office is right through there." She nodded her head in another direction and walked around a desk to grab Isobel's keys like she'd said. "Isobel was one of my first professors. I'm a grad student. She was…brilliant. One of the reasons I went into folklore." Alaric smiled. "I…have to ask…um, has there been any news?"

"No. No, I'm afraid not."

Moving on from her disappointment that was unsurprising, Vanessa gestured to the door in the office. "It's right this way." She unlocked the door and soon after, the whole group flooded in and spread out, intrigued at all the information that was sitting on bookshelves for them to hut through. "I'll grab the light. Feel free to look around. It's fascinating, isn't it?"

"Mmhmm," Damon mumbled to himself as he played with some of the things on a desk by the window. Elena was looking through bookshelves and Claire tested the dust levels on the bookshelf adjacent to Elena. Turning around to see that the research assistant was not there, Damon raised his eyebrows. "Where'd she go?"

It all happened to quickly after that. Claire wrinkled her nose at the sight of so much dust on the bookshelf and she turned around, only to be surprised by Vanessa who had already launched an arrow at her. Claire braced to move quickly, but Damon flashed so fast that he was in front of her, his back taking the hit of the arrow. Elena gasped beside them, shocked, while Alaric just pinned Vanessa to the nearest wall to subdue her for further questioning after her actions.

* * *

"Pull it out," Damon growled to Claire as the vampire stood behind him, debating whether or not to pull the arrow out. She hesitated.

"What if I don't want to?"

"Just pull the damn thing out, Claire," Damon hissed through his teeth. "It _hurts_."

Claire frowned at him, but nevertheless reached forward to take the arrow out of his back. She was very much capable of doing it, but she didn't really want to. Damon might've saved her life, but she didn't _ask_ him to. She could've been out of that arrow's line of sight in a millisecond if she wanted it. So, expressing her partially feminist-driven anger, she reached forward, grabbed the arrow, and twisted it into him just out of spite. Damon groaned loudly while Claire finally ripped the arrow out of his flesh, earning yet another groan from the Salvatore.

"There." She dropped the arrow in front of him. "Happy now?"

Claire turned her back just as Damon straightened out his spine and shuddered from the pain that arrow caused. Sighing, he then declared, "That bitch is _dead." _

This caused her to immediately turn around, alarmed. "No, she's not. Alaric and Elena don't want her dead, so you're not going to kill her, okay?"

Damon came to a stop in front of Claire, who was staring at him coldly with crossed arms. He just smirked down at her, deciding to switch it up to a light mood, even though there was always a dark cloud surrounding him.

"Watch me." He brushed past Claire to go out into the main office, but she spun around on her heel to face him as he walked out.

"Lay one finger on her, Damon, and I swear to God, I'll book the next plane ticket back to Rio and _never _speak to you again," she threatened him. It wasn't so much that she didn't want to see Vanessa die, but she wanted to show Damon up. The best way to deal with a rogue mind was to threaten it with something it couldn't handle losing.

Damon turned around at her with an unimpressed expression. "What makes you think that has any power over me? 'Cause I took an arrow in the back for you? You are _severely _overestimating yourself." He smirked and tried to sling an arm around her. Instead, she slapped it away and smiled bitterly.

"Because I _know_ you, Damon. And you would rather listen to me than lose me and I _know_ that for a fact."

Damon ignored her. "When did you become such a stick-in-the-mud? Fighting for unimportant human lives?"

"When did _you_ become someone who kills a close friend and your alleged friend's brother?"

"You're trying to manipulate me," he accused, narrowing his eyes.

"Manipulate…boss you around…frankly, I don't care what you call it." Claire shrugged and her eyes turned cold. "But you're not killing her. Got it?"

Damon fell silent, and Claire brushed his shoulder and walked out into the office where Alaric and Elena were listening to Vanessa plead her case.

"Please! Okay? I freaked! All right, you would've done the same thing. It is not _possible_! Katherine Pierce can't be alive."

"I'm not Katherine," Elena told her, shaking her head. "My name is _Elena _Gilbert. I'm Isobel's daughter and a descendant of Katherine Pierce."

Vanessa shook her head vigorously. "Damon Salvatore and Clarissa King _died _in 1865! Okay? I-I read Isobel's research."

"Yeah, well, then you should know just how possible this is," Alaric told her firmly. Damon and Claire came up to Elena's sides to face Vanessa, who was staring at them with fear and confusion. Claire sighed.

"You're right, I _did _die in 1865. I _am_ Clarissa King, but you can call me Claire." She looked back at Damon. "And this is Damon Salvatore, who you just shot."

"I'd be _extra _nice to me right now," Damon chastised lightly. Claire sighed.

"Look, as long as you don't try to shoot me again, we won't hurt you. But right now, we need your help. All of Isobel's research on Mystic Falls, we need to see it. Do you think you can do that for us?" Claire asked, but it wasn't really a question. Vanessa could see it was a courtesy. So, without delay, she complied and brought out all of the boxes she knew existed on anything relating to Mystic Falls.

"This box checks Katherine's arrival to Mystic Falls in April of 1864," Vanessa announced, putting a box in front of Elena. To her dismay, it was smaller than she'd hoped.

"Is that all there is about her?"

Vanessa nodded. "All that I'm aware of."

Elena took it in stride, however, hoping that she'd find something else among all the books in the room they were standing in. She already had enlisted Claire into helping her, knowing that she was the only one who'd really understand the need to find out about her heritage. Their first priority was the lycanthrope, but that didn't mean the two couldn't search for something else. However, Elena was more concerned about Damon, who she knew had an itching to kill Vanessa with his bare hands. Spotting him with his back turned, Elena reached into the box of things Vanessa had brought over and grabbed two branches of vervain.

"Here," she whispered and handed it to Vanessa. "Take this."

Vanessa looked up at Elena, intrigued. "Does vervain really work?" she asked lowly.

Elena nodded as a reply, but Damon soon shouted, "Nope! Not at all."

"Can he hear us?"

"No, that would be _creepy," _Damon whispered mockingly, causing Elena to nod her head in disappointment. Vanessa scoffed.

"Can he read _minds, _too?"

"You know, if you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask," Damon said cockily as he turned around to face the two conversing humans. Elena gave him a glare and Vanessa straightened with a pointed look.

"Don't listen to him." Claire walked into the room with a bunch of books she'd thought were worth a look into. Vanessa and Elena turned to see her as she dropped the books on the table and sighed, looking back at Damon. "Trust me, it's nothing special."

Though her back was to him, Damon frowned, unimpressed with her notion of his seemingly unimpressive physique. He knew it was a lie. But while he was just disappointed in the one comeback he despised, Vanessa laughed to herself at the comment while Elena just looked at Claire with shock, wondering what, _exactly, _the comment meant and how Claire had enough experience to make it.

* * *

A while after Claire's snide comment to Damon, he actually found his way up to her in the back as she shuffled through a bunch of papers to try and help Elena with finding Katherine. Vanessa, Damon, and Alaric were on werewolf duty, and Elena had enlisted her on Katherine duty. Even though she was supposed to be looking for doppelgänger information, Claire also tried to look for something—anything—that could pertain to why Katherine despised her so much. She wanted a _real _reason, not the one she already knew.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked, slurring his words together as he came up behind Claire. She sighed and thought about asking him to get the hell away from her, but decided against it. She didn't have much of a fight left in her anymore; it was starting to wear her out.

"Looking through some papers to find something Elena can use. She wants to know more about Katherine."

"Any luck?"

Claire shook her head. "Nope. Nothing about Katherine in here that I didn't already know. Nothing I could use against her, either," she almost scoffed. Damon took in a sharp inhale, causing Claire to raise her eyebrows and stop what she was doing.

"Ah, _man_. You know, it's a bummer we are in the middle of a _huge _fight right now. Because I could tell you what I know."

At this, Claire just rolled her eyes. "Go manipulate someone else, Damon. I've developed a tolerance."

"Well, it's only fair. Since you did it first," he retorted, causing her to look back at him. Their eyes locked for a moment, and she wanted to knock the wide, sly smirk on his face. Before she could, however, Alaric spoke, gaining their attention.

"Hey guys. Check this out." Alaric passed the book in his hand to Vanessa, and Claire put down the papers she was holding to go over to them. Damon hung back, still with a smile on his face and his arms crossed over his chest dominantly.

"There's no record of werewolf mythology in Mystic Falls, but here are some records of some of the lesser known legends. Everything from Scandinavian skin-walkers to the Maréchal de Retz." Vanessa handed Damon the book in her hand as he approached her and she pointed to one of the drawings scribbled on the page. Then, she read aloud one of the sayings articulately. "Which roughly translates into 'the curse of the sun and the moon'."

"It's Native American," Alaric commented.

"Aztec," Vanessa corrected. "It explains one origin of the werewolf curse traced through Virginia. The short story—600 years ago, the Aztecs were plagued by werewolves and vampires. They terrorized the countryside, made farming and hunting impossible…until an Aztec shaman cursed them, making vampires slaves to the sun and werewolves servants of the moon. As a result, vampires could only prowl at night, and werewolves could only turn on a full moon. When the full moon crests in the sky, whosever unlucky enough to fall under the werewolf curse turns into a wolf."

"Can they control the transformation?" Damon asked, intrigued.

"If it were a choice, it wouldn't be called a curse." Vanessa looked at him pointedly as Damon wandered off somewhere, bored of staying in the same place. Moving on from the question, she continued. "Werewolves will attack humans, but instinct and centuries of rivalry have hardwired them to hunt their prey of choice—vampires."

This caused a spark in everyone's eyes when they realized that werewolves were gunning after them. If that were true, then the Lockwood boys would cause some serious trouble for them.

"Well…if werewolves are hunting vampires, I would know about it," Damon assured Vanessa.

"Not if there aren't that many werewolves left alive," she offered. Damon's smug smile just dropped instantly as he heard the reasoning to Vanessa's suggestion. "Hundreds of years ago, vampires hunted them almost to extinction."

"Why would they do that?" Elena asked.

"To protect themselves. Legend has it that a werewolf bite is fatal to vampires."

All of them were silent as they processed this new information. Damon was the one to finally speak everyone's mind as he muttered, "Ooh."

After learning this new information, Elena took it upon herself to go outside and warn Stefan about the werewolf bite so that he would know just in case, seeing as it was a full moon outside. But while Elena did that, Claire was still inside looking through the bookshelves for something that Elena could use. Now that they had their information and it was already dark outside, they were going to head out as soon as they wrapped everything up.

But she froze standing at that bookshelf as she saw a thickly bound book that caught her eye. On its spine read one single word: King_. _

"No way," Claire whispered, almost scoffing. She was _hoping _it was a book on her family, but in all reality, "King" could refer to other things. But when she opened the book, she saw a list of names; and she knew instantly that it was the King's family lineage. She flipped through the thin, worn-out pages, through the hundreds of generations that were the Kings, until she finally found her grandfather's name tied to his wife.

William and Regina King, who had a son named Edward King, who married Marianne Dobbs and became Marianne King, and then there was their daughter, Clarissa King…

Claire searched all over the page to find Amelia's name, but she couldn't find it. It wasn't tied to either her parents or her dad's illegitimate children. She even flipped to another page to see if Amelia was somehow moved because of limited space, but she just couldn't find it. She _strained_ her eyes to try to find it, but it just wasn't there.

"What the hell is this?" Claire blurted out to Vanessa, who was packing the stuff on Katherine away. Vanessa looked up at her to see Claire put the King's family lineage book down on the table. "This isn't right. It says I'm an only child, but I'm not. I have a sister."

Vanessa raised an eyebrow. "No…Edward and Marianne King only had one daughter, and that was you."

Claire scoffed. "I'm pretty sure I know that I'm not an only child. Amelia King is my _sister. _That book is wrong."

Vanessa frowned. "You mean…Amelia _Gilbert_?" she corrected, trying to come to an understanding. Claire shook her head.

"Gilbert? Have you listened to a word I've said? Amelia _King _is my sister. Who the hell is Amelia _Gilbert_?"

Vanessa walked up to the King's legacy book and looked at the page with Claire's name on it. "Claire, if this book says you're an only child, you're an only child. All of these books are up to date and are precise. If the King line had an Amelia King back in 1864, it would be in there. There _was _an Amelia Gilbert, though."

Claire rubbed her head. "I have _no_ idea what you're talking about. Jonathan's wife, _Elizabeth, _died giving birth to her son and after that, it was only Jonathan Gilbert and Michael Gilbert. No one else."

Thinking over Claire's words, Vanessa walked over to a bookshelf and grabbed a book with the last name Gilbert printed on the spine. Walking back over to Claire, Vanessa flipped through the pages until she found the right one, lining up with the correct timeline.

"Here." Vanessa slid the book to Claire, who took it immediately and spotted names she recognized. Jonathan Gilbert, Elizabeth Gilbert, Michael Gilbert…and then there was Amelia Gilbert, produced by Jonathan Gilbert and a woman named Michelle Maxwell. Claire looked up from the book, trying to piece it all in her mind.

"Michelle Maxwell…" Claire whispered, trying to jog her memory. She glanced over at Vanessa, distracted. "I've _heard _that name before. Where have I…"

And then, just like that, the puzzle was solved.

"What's going on over here?" Damon asked as he approached Claire from the side in her shocked form. He was slightly concerned, but he peered over her shoulder into the Gilbert book. "Jonathan Gilbert…Elizabeth Gilbert…Michael Gilbert—ugh; _that_ guy. He always gave me the creeps. Wait a second, who's _Amelia _Gilbert?"

Claire swallowed and looked back at Damon. "She's my _sister_."

* * *

It was simple, really, if one were to work it out step by step. Marianne King married Edward King when she was seventeen and they had their first child by the time she was eighteen, and that was Claire. Marianne had a friend, Michelle Maxwell, who was two years younger than her. Jonathan Gilbert had already married Elizabeth, they'd had their son, Michael, and she had died giving birth. There were always rumors that Jonathan was interested in Michelle, or so Claire heard when she was a little girl talking with her friends about the town's gossip.

So if Michelle and Jonathan were to have sex, they could've gotten pregnant. Marianne always said to Claire and Amelia that her friend had married some rich duke and had moved out of Mystic Falls, but what if it were something along the lines of what Amelia did? What if she had a child with Jonathan Gilbert and ran away? What if, perhaps, she had a child with Jonathan Gilbert, had given it to Marianne to take care of, and had run away from Mystic Falls? Then that would mean something unimaginable. Something so repulsive that it was hard to process.

Amelia was raped by her half brother.

And that rape had resulted in an adolescent pregnancy.

After they had all given up for the night, finding no more information on werewolves or any information on Katherine that they didn't already know, Damon, Claire, Elena, and Alaric all agreed to leave. Elena was using the restroom, Alaric was finishing up with Vanessa, but Claire was just ready to get off the campus and back home. She'd just learned that her _sister _was actually not her sister at all. She was somewhat along the lines of Elena and Jeremy's great, great aunt or something.

When she tried the lock on the door to get inside of the car, she found that it wouldn't open. Of course. Because she didn't have the keys and Damon probably decided to be a jackass and lock it on her. She knew it wouldn't open, but Claire kept pulling at the door handle anyway, exhausted. She sensed it when Damon came behind her and circled so that he was facing her struggle.

"Here. Allow me." He unlocked the car and opened the door for her to climb inside, and the blonde vampire just exhaled and moved to get into the car. Instead, Damon blocked the entrance with his body so she came inches away from him and moved back, cautious. Damon's icy blue eyes poured into hers. "You're not going to be able to hate me forever, you know. You've tried that; it doesn't work."

"I can always try. Can we just go now? Please? I'm not in the _mood_," she grumbled. Damon sighed and pulled out a book from behind his back, producing it for her. She looked down at it with curious eyes.

"Elena didn't dig deep enough; neither did you." Damon handed her the book and she looked at the spine, confused.

"'Petrova'? How is that going to help anything?"

Damon leaned against the open car door. "Katherine originally came from Europe. _Petrova _was her real name. Katerina Petrova, to be exact."

Claire scoffed. "I guess your 145 years of pining paid off, huh?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Back _when, _I…I saw it engraved on an old heirloom," he defended himself and looked up at her. "Men snoop, too, you know." She looked down at the book in wonder, proud that she had something to show Elena so the teenager wasn't too disappointed. She was interrupted from her thoughts when Damon inhaled sharply. "I've even done it to you before."

Claire grimaced. "Oh, really? Go on, I'd love to hear this."

"You never locked your door, so that was your own fault," Damon pointed out, crossing his arms. The vampire just nodded and narrowed her eyes, relishing in the fact that he had tried to turn it around on her. "You left me alone upstairs one day, so I decided to go into your room. I was a kid, so I felt guilty about it, but…I did it anyway. You had those _combs _that your parents gave you for your fifteenth birthday laying out on the dresser. I remember the engraving. Your middle name is Regina, after your grandmother."

The vampire tensed, surprised. "No one's supposed to know that. I _purposely _kept that a secret." She didn't like the fact that her middle name was Regina; it always struck her as odd that her middle name meant queen and that happened to correspond with her last name.

Damon shrugged. "Well, I've known for a very long time."

"Are you telling this story to _severely _piss me off? Because it's working!"

Damon frowned at her, unamused. "I'm telling you this because you were right earlier this morning. I would rather listen to you than…lose you. And you have every right to hate me for what I did to Lexi. I understand. But you hated me before and we found a way to make it work," he said, his expression hopeful. Claire stayed quiet for a long time until Damon continued, inhaling again. "It would…_suck _if that was gone forever. So…is it? Have I lost you forever?"

Damon being Damon, of course, had to give her a smirk at the end of his sentence to cover up the unwanted emotions that he hated to admit were there. Claire saw them and sighed heavily, but didn't answer his question. She couldn't.

"Elena's going to be really happy that you found this," she whispered, nodding a few times as she looked him over. "So…thanks."

Damon waited, still blocking her entrance to the car. He contemplated pressing harder to get an answer, but that would have to be enough. At least she didn't slap him this time. So, he stepped to the side and let her climb into the car first. He shut the door and then climbed in, himself in the passenger seat, and they both waited as Alaric and Elena came back to the car so they could head back home.

* * *

"Road trips work well for us," Damon pushed Claire as they both arrived back at the Salvatore house. She pushed open the door with a sigh, annoyed at Damon's persistence, and he followed her inside after shutting the door. The silence in the house indicated that no one else was home, and she realized that Stefan and Christopher were probably still out with Caroline or something like that.

"That wasn't a road trip. Road trips require _fun. _I learned that my sister's not really my sister. That's not fun," Claire pointed out as she came to a stop just before she entered the parlor. Damon came to face her. "Besides, things aren't _nearly_ back to the way they were."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. You know I chipped a little bit off of your wall of _hatred_." He smirked. Claire, however, was tired of beating around the bush. She crossed her arms.

"You know what? I need to know the truth. Why'd you do it? Why'd you kill her?" Claire asked seriously, looking him straight in the eye. Damon's smile dropped, and in its place, he became serious and frightened. "Why'd you _lie _to me about it?"

Damon swallowed a big lump in his throat. "I…I don't know, Claire. I thought it would get the town of my back…which it did. And I lied because…well, because I knew this would happen and I didn't want it to. I liked where we were…sneaking around behind Stefan's back."

"That seems to be your answer for everything, Damon," Claire scoffed, shaking her head. "You wanted sex…you wanted _me. _But were you that selfish that you were willing to cost me my own dignity to get it?" Damon fell silent, afraid to say what he really wanted to at that moment. He caught sight of the engagement ring on her finger and he swallowed hard, knowing that it was over. It was really…_over. _"And what about Jeremy? Really, did you know that he was wearing that ring?"

Damon swallowed his pride this time and he decided that there wasn't going to be another lie out of his mouth. He'd already lost her to Christopher Fell when she married, he wasn't going to lose her again. The only way to prevent that was to tell the truth.

"No. No, I didn't. Katherine _really _pissed me off and I snapped and…" Damon shrugged and looked up at her with relieved eyes. "I got lucky with the ring. And I don't know what I would've done if he wasn't wearing it. I didn't mean to take it out on Elena's brother. He was just…there." Things were silent before Damon finally sighed. "Claire, I'm sorry. Not just for Jeremy, but for Lexi, too. I shouldn't have done it."

Claire looked into his eyes, and she could see how hard it was for him to force out the words. Not physically impossible like her when it came to a three-word sentence, but it was hard for him. She nodded.

"I appreciate your honesty, Damon. I don't think you've ever really given me that courtesy before." He nodded. "But, the answer to your question…from before?" It killed her as she watched his expression grow hopeful, but she knew that she couldn't stand to forgive him. It was easier to hate him than to care about him. The blonde shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I can't forgive you, Damon. Not this time. You have lost me forever."

She waited for just a second, watching as the realization crossed his face. Then, not wanting to deal with the outcome of her rash actions, she turned on her heel to go upstairs. However, Damon immediately pulled her back with his hard voice.

"But you knew that already, didn't you?" he pressed, and she turned back at him with an irritated expression. "Because you've already made your decision. You've put on your wedding rings and now you're pretending like nothing ever happened between us. Like nothing ever mattered."

"It didn't."

"You wanna know why Katherine hates you so much, Claire?" Damon asked her, his eyes cold. "You may not be her _doppelgänger, _but if you and Katherine were put in the same room, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference." A look of hurt crossed her face, and Damon shook his head at her. "You and Katherine have a lot more in common than you think."

Quickly, he turned and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Claire jolted at the loud sound, and all she could think about were Damon's harsh words and if they were true.

* * *

A tired Caroline stirred from her sleep as the sun shone through her window, illuminating her pale skin. She rose from her pillow and sat straight up in her bed, but then she jolted upright. When she saw who it was, she arched an eyebrow. "Elena?"

"Nope. Try again."

When Katherine smiled, Caroline tensed up and her face fell. Her breath was shaky now, this time out of fear. "Katherine."

The dark-haired vampire sat down on Caroline's bed with a signature pout. "Don't be frightened. We're going to have _so _much fun together."

Caroline peered at Katherine from the side to see the doppelgänger's devious look, and she knew that there was nowhere she could run.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please!**


	18. Memory Lane

**Another long chapter, guys; ****sorry. But bare with me! Things should start picking up soon, I hope. There are multiple scene changes in this, but this is one of the rare times when I had to switch between so many people. **

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Memory Lane**

"_Miss King, do you think you could spare your handsome fiancé for one small dance?" Katherine asked teasingly, her eyes never flickering towards Clarissa. They remained focused on Christopher, and his conversation with Clarissa ceased at the interruption. Clarissa turned to face Katherine, but she didn't want to be rude. _

"_Of course, Miss Pierce. One dance," she promised and gave her husband a reassuring smile before walking off into the rest of the crowd at the Lockwood mansion. Giving Katherine a smile, Christopher held up his hand and Katherine held up hers as well. _

"_You look lovely tonight, Miss Pierce. As always," Christopher told her politely. It was rude not to compliment a lady on her appearance. _

_Katherine giggled. "Thank you, Mr. Fell. You look very handsome as well." They walked around in a circle before switching hands. Christopher spotted Damon in the crowd alone, watching them. He sighed. _

"_Damon Salvatore must be very upset that I've taken a dance from you. Didn't his brother escort you tonight?" _

"_Indeed he did," Katherine agreed as they held up two hands now to go around in another circle. "But Damon needs to concede that you are quite possibly the best dancer in the whole town. Clarissa is so lucky to have that on her wedding day." _

"_Yes. The date is fast approaching." _

"_Well, I'm sure it will be delightful." Katherine gave Christopher a loving smile and then looked elsewhere into the crowd and gave a look of approval. "Oh, looks like Damon found someone else to occupy his time." _

_As they came back around in a circle so that Christopher was facing Damon Salvatore, he found Claire holding Damon's hands as he stared at her with affection in his eyes. Claire peeked at Christopher from the side, almost as if on purpose. Immediately, Christopher broke away from Katherine without giving it a second thought. _

"_Claire?" _

"_Christopher, don't," Katherine warned behind him. But Christopher followed Claire as Damon led her away from the party and behind the door. He picked up speed and burst through the door they had disappeared into and shouted her name. _

_But when he opened the door, he was no longer in the Lockwood mansion. He was standing in the middle of the Grill, staring at Claire who was a few yards away from him at the pool table. She extended a cue stick and he stepped forward cautiously. _

"_Come on, take your shot__," she spoke, a small smile playing on her lips. Christopher stepped forward again to go to her, but instead, he found someone coming around the corner with two drinks in hand. _

"_Be prepared to lose," Damon taunted as he walked over to Claire and kissed her, still holding the drinks in his hand. She smiled at him and laughed. __Christopher felt an anger rise inside of him that he'd never experienced before._

"_It hurts, doesn't it?" _

_He spun around to face Katherine, still dressed like she was in the Lockwood mansion. Her face was solemn and she looked back at Claire and Damon at the pool table. Seeing her eyes avert, Christopher followed them to find Damon leaning with Claire over at the pool table with his hands around her waist, showing her how to make a shot. She shook her head, obviously detesting his help but still allowing him to guide her._

"_Now you know how I feel." _

"_That's ridiculous," Christopher scoffed and turned around to look at Katherine with narrowed eyes. "You're not in love with me." _

"_Aren't I?" Katherine challenged him, her doe eyes staring into his. "Why do you think I hated her? It wasn't for Damon, it wasn't for Stefan. It was for you." _

_Katherine's hand had come out to touch the side of his face, but Christopher looked back at Claire and Damon like a reflex. He felt a pang of jealousy overcome him when he saw his ex-best friend kiss his wife's cheek. Katherine's hand slid to Christopher's arm. _

"_You really never thought of me that way? At all?" All of a sudden, they were standing back in the Lockwood mansion with no one surrounding them. Katherine walked up to him and placed her hands on each side of his face. "You never thought of this?" _

_Katherine leaned forward and kissed him. _

* * *

Christopher shot up in bed, the sheets pooling around his ankles as he probably kicked them off during the night. He had no shirt on, but was wearing pajama pants that he had bought sometime when Claire went to take him shopping for modern clothes. The dream he had still raced in his memory, and it all made sense when he found a modern version of Katherine on the bench at the end of his and Clarissa's bed, her head in her palm.

"It was _not _easy to get into your head. I'm impressed. Keep up the good feeding," she praised.

Christopher sighed. "What are you doing here? Where's Claire?"

Katherine shrugged. "How should I know? You were sleeping alone when I came in." A small smile played at her lips. "And I think that dream says enough."

Christopher scoffed. "Uh huh. Right, because you're in love with me. That's the funniest joke I've heard since I became a _vampire_."

Katherine watched him as he got up from the bed and walked to his dresser to grab a shirt. She eyed him with passion in her eyes and sighed. "Oh, you know it was the best thing that ever happened to you. Besides, you're so much…_sexier _nowadays."

The other vampire rolled his eyes. "I'm married, Katherine." He paused and muttered, "Not that that'll stop you, anyways."

Katherine's smile was infectious. "Come on. I _turned_ you…there's got to be _something _there for me inside of your oblivious, Clarissa-loving heart."

Christopher peered back at her, now fully clothed, but he decided to make a rash decision. He flashed over to her and pinned her throat against the bed, causing Katherine to choke for a minute before recoiling. She threw him back, and he landed right at the dresser, causing some of the items from the furniture to come crashing down. Katherine sighed and got up from the bench at the end of the bed.

"I said you had good feeding practices, Christopher, but I didn't say you were indestructible. We both know I could rip you to shreds _and _do my nails at the same time."

Christopher got up from the floor and sighed. "What do you want from me, Katherine? Shouldn't you be annoying Stefan, per your usual?"

"I told you, I'm here to see _you_," Katherine insisted, but Christopher wasn't buying it. "Indulge me for a little while, please?"

"Fine. What are you doing back in town?"

"Three reasons. You, you, and you," Katherine said playfully as she counted up three fingers with each listing. Christopher frowned.

"You mean, Claire, Claire, and Claire." Katherine said nothing and he laughed at her. "You think I don't know what you're trying to do? It's a petty move, Katherine. Trust me, I know much more about you than you think. I won't fall for it."

The doppelgänger groaned desirably and reached out to trail her finger across Christopher's chest. He didn't move, only because he was waiting to see what she'd do. "Don't you want to try it though? See what the hype is about? I bet the only person you've been with is your beloved _Clarissa_." She said the word with so much distaste that it was less mocking and angrier than it should've been.

His hand reached down to catch her finger just as it neared the waistline of his pajama pants. Katherine giggled and he threw her hand back to her side. "I'll pass."

"Fine," the vampire agreed, amused. "Then get a drink with me. I'm sure we could both use one."

"You turned my wife into a vampire, tortured her for three weeks, _forced _her to admit to me that she was a vampire, and then turned _me _to get back at her. Then, you tried to have me killed and I ended up trapped in a tomb for a century and a half," Christopher listed, scoffing. "I don't want to get a _drink _with you."

"I'll make you a deal," Katherine promised, stepping forward to come face-to-face with him. They were inches apart, but Christopher didn't move, again trying to figure her out first. He was trying to be smart about this—she'd already come in contact with Stefan, Damon, and Claire, so this was his one shot to change everything. And, potentially, he could. "You supply me with drinks downstairs and I will answer your questions. Just spend the day with me."

"You're that desperate for company?" Christopher almost laughed.

Katherine's lips turned up childishly. "I'm that desperate for _you_."

* * *

When Stefan came to, he could feel that something was wrong. He could sense someone in the house that wasn't supposed to be there. His bright green eyes snapped open and he stared at the ceiling, trying to pinpoint the location of this abnormality. He soon realized that it was nowhere in the house other than his room. He shot straight up in his bed only to see Amelia standing at this desk a few feet away, recognizing his consciousness.

"A—"

Amelia flashed over to him and clamped her hand down on Stefan's mouth to keep him from saying anything. Their faces were so close that he could smell the shampoo in her hair and the perfume on her skin. Stefan breathed through her hand, and she felt his hot breath tickle the skin. Amelia gulped and whispered lowly.

"We have to be _quiet_," she said, her voice barely able to be heard by even him. Stefan nodded, and she removed her hand hesitantly, bringing it to her side. Stefan gulped down a lump in his throat.

"What are you doing here?" he said quietly at the same volume she was at. Amelia sat down on his bed with caution.

"We need to talk," she said, shaking her head. "But not here. Is there somewhere we can go?"

Stefan looked around his room to think to himself, but eventually, he thought of a place outside of his home that they could talk in. First of all, though, he needed to know the subject of the conversation.

"Talk? Talk about what?"

Amelia was silent for a long time, her grey eyes pouring into the younger Salvatore's. "Katherine. We need to talk about Katherine."

* * *

Before heading over to Jenna's barbecue that she'd been invited to by both Elena and Alaric, Claire went to go grab a drink at the Grill. She ordered a shot of tequila, needing a head start for the day, and she knocked it back without even thinking twice. Things were fine with her and Christopher—the only reason she wasn't with him this morning was because of the barbecue, and she had left a text telling him where she was so he could join. Her problem was with _Damon, _who just so happened to show up at the Grill while she was there, most likely to annoy her. She caught sight of him as she knocked her drink back and came back to a horizontal position and sighed.

"What do you want, Damon?"

"So _this _is where you spend your time when you're not stabbing people in the back."

She rolled her eyes. "I never stabbed you in the back. I _tricked_ you so that Elena could know more about Katherine and I could, ideally, find out why the hell I have a psychotic bitch set on destroying me. But if my memory serves me right, you've done way worse to _me_ over the years. Consider it payback."

Without warning, she got up from the barstool and left a bunch of bills down on the counter for the bartender. She wouldn't have been so bitter to him if it hadn't been for his mouth running off about her being exactly like Katherine. If she were being truthful, it had bothered her to no end. Not that she would ever be truthful to Damon. As she tried to leave, he gave her a sour smile and ignored her comment.

"Where are you going?"

She smiled at him, equally as acidic. "Away from _you_."

Damon shrugged from his seat as he watched Claire attempt to leave. "Okay. See you at Jenna's barbecue."

Of course, this stopped Claire right in her tracks so that she turned around to face Damon, who was staring at the alcohol on the shelves beyond the counter. Claire opened her mouth sharply.

"How…did you know about Jenna's barbecue?"

Damon scoffed. "It was my _idea_." Claire arched an eyebrow. "Jenna went to high school with Mason Lockwood, so I figured a social gathering would be a good way to get to know the guy. So I told Ric to tell Jenna and—"

"Does Elena know you're going to be there? Because neither one of us are a big fan of yours right now."

Before Damon could answer, one of the waitresses interrupted when she brought Damon a box, causing him to smile. "Perfect! Thank you." Claire looked down at the box and watched as he looked up at her. "I'm hoping this peach cobbler will pave the way."

Claire laughed. "You think a peach cobbler is going to make up for killing her brother?"

Damon shrugged. "No, but Jenna's sure to like it." He smirked and got off of the bar, sliding right past Claire. She frowned, unamused at his behavior.

"What are you up to?"

Damon stopped right next to her, just by her ear. "I'm gonna put some silver into Mason Lockwood and prove he's a werewolf." He smiled bitterly and instantly dropped it. "See you at the barbecue."

* * *

"So," Katherine started as she sat down on the armchair in the parlor. Christopher passed her the glass of bourbon and took the supply of alcohol to his own seat on the couch. "I heard you and the Scooby gang had a recent werewolf sighting. That must've come as a surprise."

The night that Claire, Damon, Elena, and Alaric had gone to the Duke campus to learn about werewolves, Christopher, Caroline, and Stefan had encountered one. Mason Lockwood, most likely. Tyler had stopped it before the werewolf could bite any one of them with a fatal injection, but they had cut it pretty close.

He nodded. "We did. But what do you know about werewolves?"

Katherine shrugged and sipped her bourbon. "I know…not to pet one. Their bite kills, Christopher. It's best to stay clear of them during a full moon."

"And you know this…how?"

"Who do you think was responsible for ridding this town of vampires in 1864?"

"The Founding Families, obviously."

"Spearheaded by…?"

"The Lockwoods."

Katherine took another sip of alcohol. "You remember the Founder's Ball, don't you? The one that you were dreaming about?" He nodded. "Well, that was before Stefan and Damon knew I was a vampire. Before I even turned you or Claire. Henry approached me that night and told me that he looked into the recent attacks; they weren't vampires, they were something else."

"Werewolves," Christopher filled in.

Katherine nodded. "But there was something about George Lockwood that struck me as odd. From the moment I met George, I knew he'd be a problem."

"So all the Lockwoods are werewolves?"

"The werewolf gene runs in the Lockwood _family, _not that they're all wolves," she corrected him, pointing a slender finger.

"So is it just the Lockwoods, then?"

"No. There are others. Not many," Katherine explained. "They're practically extinct. They mainly exist now in…books and really _bad_ movies." She downed all the bourbon in her glass and smirked. "Okay! It's my turn now."

"Your turn?" he questioned, immediately realizing that he'd walked into a Katherine Pierce signature trap. "That wasn't the deal, Katherine."

Katherine leaned forward and passed Christopher the empty glass so he could use it for himself. "But that's how a drinking game works, sexy. It takes two to play, you know."

Christopher didn't want to play, but it seemed that he was the only willing participant. He took the bourbon glass and poured some for himself while Katherine thought of his first question. When he had all the contents of alcohol in his glass, Katherine began.

"Do you really love her?" she asked, making a face. Christopher scoffed and looked away from her. "I'm asking to be mean or question your feelings, I simply just want to know. I could always tell her love for you wasn't as real as it was for Damon."

"Katherine, of course I love her. I love her even _more _now that we're both vampires, so your plan essentially backfired." Katherine scowled at him and he shook his head at her and drank. "Besides, you're wrong about Damon. She never loved him."

Katherine arched an eyebrow. "You really believe that?" she asked skeptically. He nodded at her. "Wow. You're more oblivious than I thought, then."

Christopher drank again and shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just think about it," Katherine urged him, tilting her head curiously. "When has she ever really _told _you that she loves you? It's just a game with her. She can't handle love, it's not in her cards."

"Katherine, all you _do _is play games. And are you supposed to be the expert on her?" he asked the doppelgänger, turning his head to her with cold eyes. "You _turned _her because you were jealous of her. What does that say about you?"

Katherine supplied an empty hand. "I don't have a drink, you can't ask me any questions."

Christopher eyed her, trying to play her game, and then he figured it out. He downed the bourbon in the glass and slammed it down on the coffee table, barely batting an eye as the strong alcohol went down his throat. He then poured his guest a drink and handed it to her, earning Katherine to give him a sly smile. She took a sip, and he watched her with curious eyes.

"All right, now you have a drink. So tell me more about what you know about werewolves."

Katherine sighed and drank. "Well, back at the Founder's Ball—"

Christopher cut her off. "Katherine, I don't want to hear anymore stories about the past. Tell me what you know or I'm leaving."

"Yes, you do," Katherine pressed, nodding at him. He cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Christopher, stories from the past are _exactly _what you want to hear. George came up to me that night, and I threatened him and confronted him about his secret. He tried to leave, but I kept him back. Werewolves are strong but…not _as _strong as vampires."

"What did he want?" Christopher asked, intrigued. Katherine fell silent, refusing to speak as she continued drinking the alcohol in her cup. He straightened on the couch out of annoyance. "Really? We're gonna do this again?"

Katherine smiled coyly and slid the bourbon glass back to him for another round.

* * *

"Why is she in town?" Stefan asked Amelia as they sat down at a table in the Grill together. He had changed into actual clothes and, though they didn't know it, when they'd left the house, Christopher and Katherine had still been upstairs. "And why'd she bring you back with her?"

Amelia shrugged. "I don't know. Her answer changes every day. One minute, it's Damon…one minute, it's you…another, it's Christopher…then, it's Claire…"

"Christopher?" Stefan repeated, dumbfounded. Amelia nodded. "What's he got to do with anything? Why would Katherine come back for _him_?"

"She claims she's in love with him or something. It's either that or she's trying to get back at Claire. Take something of hers like Claire did because…_apparently _she took Damon away from Katherine." Amelia snorted. "Which never really made sense to me. That's why, when I learned Katherine was the one who made Claire into a vampire because of _Damon, _I turned against her. I'd always thought my sister died because…I don't know, she got caught in a fire and had vampire blood in her system or something. Not that _Katherine _stabbed her and purposely fed her vampire blood so she'd die and turn."

He shook his head. "Katherine didn't stabbed her, she drowned her. Then she tortured her for three weeks until Emily Bennett turned on Katherine, too. Emily was supposed to take her to the church before it burned, but instead, she made Claire a daylight ring and told her about me and Damon."

Amelia was silent before she took in a deep breath. "God, that's even _worse_." She rubbed her head, brushing her bangs out of the way as she did so. "I can't believe I ever…admired that bitch. I'm such an idiot."

"She's the one who turned you, isn't she?" Stefan asked quietly from beside her, watching as his old friend beat herself up over it. Amelia looked up at him and eventually nodded.

"Yeah. It was after the church had burned and the vampires were gone. A month later, Katherine found me living on the streets of Delaware and she made me a vampire. She didn't know I was Clarissa's sister until later, but…I don't know, she still wanted to keep me around." She propped her head up with her hand. "I think I'm just a pawn now. She has me running around town trying to destroy Claire's life. Today, I was supposed to get you to turn against her." Amelia shook her head. "I won't do it."

Stefan snorted. "You can't. Claire and I have been friends since the beginning, nothing will never change that." Amelia nodded to herself, as if processing it. "And…since we're so close, she…she kind of—"

"She told you, didn't she? About Michael?" Amelia cut him off, leaning back in her chair. Stefan hung his head and nodded. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised. But I'm not looking for pity, Stefan. In fact, I don't want it."

He shook his head. "I wasn't going to give it you, I promise." Amelia was always a hardheaded girl—almost as hardheaded as her sister. "But it just makes a whole lot of sense. That day you vomited in the garden, that was because of…of the baby, right?"

"Yeah, that'd be a little weird if I threw up because of a bunch of roses and tulips, wouldn't it?" She chuckled. Stefan did the same, reliving the memory. Amelia smiled through her laughs. "God, you were so _worried _about me. You thought I had come down with some kind of flu, but you still insisted upon trying to take care of me. Eventually, your father had to come and pry you away because he was worried you'd get sick."

"I always hated him for that. It was one of the last times I saw you for a good five minutes." He paused for a while as the silence ensued.

Amelia glanced up at Stefan, capturing his eyes at last. "Why _did_ you try to stay with me, Stefan?" she whispered, confused. "Back then, I could've been sick with something lethal, and you knew that. Your _father _knew that, which was why he took you away. But why did you want to stay?"

Stefan looked at her for a moment and almost spilled the truth. Instead, he cleared his throat and averted his eyes, letting them sweep across the public restaurant. "You know, I…um, I don't think I should be the one to tell you this, but I feel like it'd be wrong of me if I didn't tell you."

Amelia leaned forward and shrugged. "Tell me what?"

Stefan put his lips together. "Claire's…not your real sister, Amelia."

* * *

"Thanks for inviting me, Jenna. And thanks for letting me bring Caroline along. She could use a nice distraction," Claire thanked Jenna graciously as she helped Elena's aunt set up for the barbecue in the Gilbert kitchen. Elena was off with Caroline somewhere, and Claire had supplied the young vampire with chips to keep her cravings down. As it turned out, she wasn't nearly as controlled as they all thought—she almost killed Matt the night she went to Duke. It seemed that trip was beneficial for no one but Elena.

"It's no problem," Jenna said, waving her hand dismissively. "But she's not the plus one I'm worried about." Claire looked up at the young woman to find her arching an eyebrow. "Why is _Damon_ coming?"

Claire snorted. "Because your boyfriend's looking for a charity case." She fit a chip into her mouth and processed it. "So you're not a big fan of Damon's, either?"

"Not since Elena told me that he kissed you." Claire tensed at Jenna's exclamation, and Jenna sighed. "To be honest, I knew before she told me. You two were kissing on the porch…it was kind of hard to miss." The vampire sighed heavily and put another chip in her mouth. "But he needs to keep his hands to himself. You're married, aren't you?"

Claire nodded, but felt an overwhelming pang of guilt overcome her. It wasn't just a one-sided kiss; she'd participated, too. She wished she hadn't, but she did. "Don't worry. He's, uh, he's not gonna do it again."

"Ahh! Good news! Found the shot glasses," a voice boomed, and Claire and Jenna turned around to see Mason Lockwood enter the kitchen. Claire felt uncomfortable around the very person that could kill her, but she wasn't Damon. She wasn't paranoid.

Jenna laughed. "You're here _ten _minutes and already I'm back under the bleachers at the pep rally."

"It's just like old times, huh?" Mason asked her, pulling his friend closer to him in a hug as they laughed and reminisced. "Only I didn't swipe this bottle from my old man."

Claire looked down at the alcohol, but decided against it. "I think I'm gonna go call Christopher. See where he is. He should be here by now. Excuse me."

Jenna and Mason watched her go out of the kitchen with her phone in her head, ready to call her husband. Claire stepped out onto the porch and put her phone up to her ear as she called Christopher's cell phone that he was fully equipped to use. Instead of getting him, however, she reached his voicemail. When the beep sounded, Claire sighed.

"Hey. Where are you? I sent you a text about Jenna's barbecue…I don't know if you got it or not, but…" Claire turned around sensing someone else, and she found Caroline listening in as she came out onto the porch with a bowl of chips in her arm. Claire turned around to herself and said into the phone, "Just…call me back."

"Was that Christopher?" Caroline asked as soon as Claire ended the call. The young vampire went around to sit in the outdoor chairs on Elena's porch to get more comfortable. Claire, however, just stood by one of them and nodded.

"Yeah. It's weird, I can't get a hold of him. I mean…I told him he didn't have to come, but I would like to think he'd want to," Claire mumbled to herself, already worried. Caroline shrugged.

"I'm sure he's fine." She crunched a chip in her mouth and groaned. "God, I cannot stop eating! Is that normal?"

Claire nodded. "Yeah. It's great to sublimate the cravings for a while. But we should really curve you on the human stuff so you don't attack Matt again."

Caroline shook her head. "Matt and I broke up."

The other vampire dropped her small smile. "Oh…Caroline, I'm sorry."

Caroline waved her hand. "No, it's okay. Really. I think I just realized that…well, he wasn't enough for me, you know? I want…I want _passion. _I want someone who makes me feel _good _or…or _bad, _even. Someone I can be myself around, no restrictions at all."

Claire shrugged. "Well, if that's what you want, then go for it."

"What about you?" Caroline peered up at her with a questionable look. Her sire arched an eyebrow. "Does your husband make you feel that way? I don't know…like…like you just _hate_ him so much that you love him?"

The two blonde vampires stared at each other, one awaiting an answer and one processing the odd question. Before Claire could come up with a response, Elena walked out onto the porch, swinging herself out of the door to look at them.

"Hey, the food's ready."

"Finally!" Caroline exclaimed, setting her chips down and standing up. "I'm starving."

The young vampire left her sire standing outside, still confused over the question she'd been asked and where it came from. Something was peculiar about Caroline; something that she didn't quite understand yet.

* * *

"If you're not going to tell me anything more about the werewolves, then you need to tell me something else," Christopher warned Katherine while she drank more alcohol. "You need to tell me why you came back to town."

Katherine rolled her chocolate eyes. "I already told you."

"_I'm _not a reason, Katherine," he almost snapped, and Katherine saw the seriousness in his eyes, too. "You and I both know that you're lying to me. You told Stefan the same thing."

"Yeah, I was lying to him. But I'm not lying to you, okay? Just...seeing Stefan with Elena really _pisses_ me off," she urged, putting her glass down on the coffee table. This time, she poured her own glass. Her companion scoffed and looked elsewhere in complete disbelief, but Katherine just pushed on. "Look, I might've been…_with_ Damon and Stefan back in 1864, but you don't know the truth. All that time, I wanted _you_."

"You're only saying that to get me to turn on my wife," Christopher said, seeing through her like she was transparent. Katherine gave a look of offense to him. "You know she'd be devastated if I ever betrayed her, so you're trying to make me believe that this is real. But it's not."

"Yes, it is," Katherine hissed, tired of beating around the bush. Her eyes met Christopher's. "Don't you remember 1864? You can't tell me that you didn't feel anything between us. At that Founder's Ball, it was all there. That was the night I decided that I was going to turn you—not because it was an act of revenge on Claire whenever I decided to turn her, but because _I _wanted you. We danced that night and you said I was both strong _and _beautiful. That anyone would be lucky to have me."

Christopher laughed to himself. "I was being _polite, _Katherine. I was engaged to Claire. Do you really think that dance meant something more to me?"

"You never treated me like I was a prize," Katherine whispered, almost hurt at his dismissal of her reasoning. "You treated me like I was a _person_, not an object. With Stefan and Damon, it was all about competition. About who could win me over." Getting up, Christopher grabbed a glass from behind the couch, unable to handle Katherine's presence without the help of alcohol. "I didn't try to kill you by putting you in that church, Christopher. Believe me, I was going to _take_ you with me. Claire was the one who was supposed to die. I wanted a life with you."

Things had turned for him. Instead of laughing, he just looked at Katherine over the couch and sighed. "Why are you telling me this?"

Katherine shrugged. "Because you deserve better than her. You do. I'm telling you, she'll never love you as much as she loves _him_." The female vampire's eyes roamed across his face with a sincerity that Christopher could not tell whether it was false or not. "And deep down, you know that."

* * *

Stefan stared at Amelia as she processed this information, completely shell-shocked. He didn't blame her one bit—she'd just realized that the father of her child, the man who raped her, was her _half-brother. _If that wasn't sick, Stefan didn't know what was. Amelia's hand shifted to wrap around her lips, wiping them free of shock as she stared at the table and thought.

"I can't believe this," she whispered, shaking her head. "I…I was…" Amelia looked up at Stefan sharply, and he saw her eyes water. "No. No, this has got to be a mistake."

The younger Salvatore shook his head. "It's not. Claire brought back the family lineage books on the Gilberts and the Kings. You aren't listed in the King line, you're listed in the Gilbert's. Your mom gave you up to Marianne when you were born and then left Mystic Falls."

Amelia fell silent. "How's Claire taking this?"

"She wanted to tell you the next chance she had, but…since you came to see me first…" Stefan trailed off for a moment, seeing the look of disgust on the beautiful blonde vampire's face. Feeling sorry for her, he reached out and touched her hand. "Look, everything's gonna be fine. You and Claire are still going to be sisters, even if you're not blood related."

Amelia looked down at her hand that Stefan had taken, and he realized very suddenly how inappropriate it was. In fact, he hadn't even thought about it until after he'd grabbed her hand, but he _did _have a girlfriend. _Elena, _his mind reminded him. _Elena. _

Assuming she knew this, Amelia slipped her hand out of Stefan's and shifted uncomfortably. "Doesn't this make me your girlfriend's…great-great aunt or something?"

"You know about Elena?"

Amelia scoffed. "It's hard not to know. Katherine despises her. I don't know if it has something to do with you or because the girl just looks like her. But she's not a big fan." Amelia paused. "I don't think Katherine could hate _anyone _as much as she hates my sister, but…well, Elena's probably a close second."

The only sound for quite some time was the sounds of conversations around them. Eventually, Stefan sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, Amelia…"

The girl looked up at him. "Don't be sorry, Stefan," she interrupted him, shaking her head. Stefan waited for her to explain. "It's your life. I can't be the one to tell you how to live it, now can I?"

Stefan hung his head and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Another silence resulted before Amelia took out a deep breath. "Okay. So here's what we're going to do, you're going to ask me whatever you want about Katherine and I'll try to answer as much as I can. I don't know how much time I have left here and I want to make it as beneficial as I can for both of us." She leaned forward and grabbed one of the fries that were in the bucket the waitress had brought over. Putting it in her mouth, she looked back at Stefan. "Ask me anything."

The two younger vampires stared at each other in understanding before the questions really began.

* * *

"Dress! Ballerina!" Jenna shouted.

"Puppy!" Caroline yelled. "Puppy! Puppy…with a tutu!"

Claire and Elena listened to the rest of the bunch in the living room as they shouted out their answers to the Pictionary game they were all invested in. They'd offered to get the dessert ready for the group, needing some space away from the coy Damon who had spent most of the barbecue trying to get into Mason's head.

"Okay…dog. Hound dog!" Aunt Jenna exclaimed excitedly. "You ain't nothing but a hound dog!"

"Dances with wolves." Mason's answer silenced the rest of them and he earned a suspicious look. Mason just smiled in his relaxed position in one of the chairs, but said nothing else.

"Mason wins…again," Damon added.

"_How _is that a wolf?" Jenna chided as Damon left the living room at that time, letting the next person have their turn. He walked out of the living room and went to the kitchen, where he found Claire taking out the peach cobbler from its box and Elena grabbing a bunch of plates to set at the dining table.

"Aunt Jenna's getting tipsy," Damon warned the two as he walked around the center island to Claire's spot. Elena looked up at them and sighed to Damon.

"Will you stop plying her with alcohol?" the teenager chastised.

"Well, I want her to like me," he defended himself. Claire snorted.

"That's _physically_ impossible." She turned her body to him. "In her eyes, you're just the guy who kissed a married woman."

Damon's blue eyes rolled around dramatically. "If only she knew how much you _wanted _that kiss."

Claire grimaced at him and turned back to the peach cobbler, avoiding Damon's gaze and looking straight into the living room at the smug Mason Lockwood and the rest of them that sat on the couch. "Any progress with the Wolverine?"

Damon came up behind her, his lips right at her ear. "He's my new BFF."

Claire shuddered and moved away from him, earning Damon to smirk at her in a complete contradiction to what most men would do. The vampire grimaced, only furthering Damon's amusement, but they were interrupted when Elena walked into the kitchen and looked at Elena.

"There you are!" The elder human looked at Damon and Claire behind the center island. "Isn't this fun?" She smiled.

"Yes. Thank you so much for inviting me," Damon said immediately. Claire shook her head and walked around Jenna to grab the pie cutter from Elena, who was by the cutlery.

"Did I have a choice?" Jenna deadpanned.

With a scowl, the handsome vampire moved closer to her and murmured, "I know what you must think about me…"

"No, you don't," Jenna cut him off angrily. "You've never dated you. I have dated _many _yous."

"Well…I'm a work in progress." Elena handed Jenna the pie cutter from the cutlery while Claire stood back with her arms crossed and her eyes surveying Damon, who was staring right back at her. A smile played on his lips before she scoffed and turned and Damon caught sight of the silver next to her. "Ooh! These are fancy."

The elder Salvatore walked over to the cutlery as Jenna sighed. "Thanks. My mother's silver set."

As soon as Jenna said the words, Elena, Claire, and Damon all looked up at each other with a mutual understanding. Damon reached into the bottom of the cutlery box and grabbed a silver knife with a sly smirk appearing on his full lips.

* * *

Christopher sat down on the couch and poured himself a glass of bourbon. "You could be lying, you could be telling the truth. But if there's one thing that I know for sure, Katherine, it's that I don't love you." He leaned back with the alcohol in his hand and gave her a bitter smile. "In fact, I might even _hate_ you."

The female vampire snorted. "If there's something you should know by now, it's that love…hate…it's such a fine line. Damon and Claire can't tell the difference. Love and hate, it's all one thing for them." She paused and watched her companion take a sip of his bourbon in thought. Eventually, Katherine sighed. "But I can wait."

"Go ahead. Hold your breath," Christopher muttered.

Katherine ignored him and moved on. "Anyway, George Lockwood was causing all sorts of trouble. He…_used_ the vampires to cover up his own tracks. Told the Founding Families about us. But, he was willing to strike a deal."

"What kind of a deal?"

"A deal to rid the town of vampires," Katherine answered as she leaned forward and poured alcohol again. It was somewhere along the lines of her fourth or fifth glass. "He and I came up with a plan to burn the vampires in the church. 27 vampires were supposed to be killed, I was supposed to be among them. But he had an escape plan for me. However, things didn't go as according to plan. Emily turned on me and _helped _Claire rather than kill her and you were caught and brought to the church. Had I known you were inside, I would've taken you out with me."

Christopher shook his head in disbelief at her. "You were the mastermind behind the entire thing?"

The female shrugged. "I practically lit the match."

Scoffing, the other vampire just stared at her incredulously, seeing the color of red around her. He thought Katherine had sent him to the tomb on purpose, but he'd always thought that she just told someone he was a vampire so they would come for him as well. What he didn't know was that this was all premeditated_; _that she _planned_ for all those vampires to die.

"Those vampires were your _friends. _Pearl…Henry…Harper. You just sold them out like they were filth!"

She agreed, "Without blinking."

* * *

"Mason," Damon announced as he brought the peach cobbler over to the dining table so they could eat the delicious dessert. Alaric and Mason were sitting at the table while Jenna was in the kitchen getting something for their last meal. Mason looked up at Damon with a smile. "Why don't you start us off?"

Damon placed the peach cobbler in front of Mason with the silver server handle in front of him. Mason's eyes flickered from the cobbler to Damon, and he just gave the vampire another smile.

"Sure." Reaching forward, Damon watched as Mason turned the plate around and grabbed a piece of the cobbler that was pre-cut, and instead of using silverware, he just used his hands to take the piece out. He ate some of the crumbs that came off and looked back and forth between Damon and Alaric, playing dumb. The testosterone in the room shot up the rough. "Oh! What am I? I apologize, I'm an animal."

Mason licked his fingers as Damon hummed under his breath and Alaric laughed to cover up the awkwardness. "So, Mason, you and Jenna never dated?"

"She was always lost in Logan Fell land."

"Ah, my _first_ mistake," Jenna reminisced, coming over to the table with a laugh. "Mason was a catch. He had girls _lining _up!"

"Really?" Damon exclaimed, feigning surprise as he sat down at the table at the chair opposite of Mason. "Huh. I always pegged you for a…lone wolf."

Mason grabbed his beer and shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure I wasn't half the lady killer you were." Damon and Mason stared at each other from across the table, the hidden innuendos finally showing their true meaning. Once Jenna rejoined the table, he rose his beer bottle. "How about a toast? To new friends!"

"Cheers!" the group chorused and threw their bottles together. From inside the living room, Claire watched the group at the table from the couch, but she didn't want to get into it. She could've been hanging out with the adults—she was one, after all—but she was too worried. Though she'd been texting and calling, she had heard nothing from her husband. Eventually, it got to the point where she started to make a list of all the terrible things that could've gone wrong with him.

"Would I be the worse sire in the world if I left you here and went back to the boarding house?" Claire asked Caroline as she straightened on the couch and stood up. Elena was taking down the pad full of sucky drawings the rest of them used to play Pictionary, but it wasn't her question to answer. She just oversaw Caroline and Claire as they spoke.

Caroline looked up at her with surprise. "You want to leave?"

Claire nodded. "Yeah…I just…I think it's a wife thing. I'm really worried about him, especially with Katherine out for me. It'd be just my luck that I'm…_here _while Katherine's trying to kill him or something to get revenge."

The younger vampire laughed it off. "Oh, come on! That's ridiculous. He's fine, he probably just didn't want to come with…you know, Damon here and everything."

Claire shook her head this time and pulled out her phone, but there were no notifications. She sighed. "He didn't even know Damon was coming, Caroline. Anyway, Damon's got it under control here with Mason. You'll be okay, right Elena?"

Behind Caroline, Elena nodded and shrugged. "Yeah. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid, either."

Claire nodded at her and braced to go, but Caroline stopped her. "Take it from me, okay? There's nothing worse than a clingy girlfriend."

"I'm not being…_clingy, _Caroline. He's my husband and I'm worried about him. Trust me, you can handle the craving just…eat some food or something and I'll find you later and we can work on it," Claire suggested as she moved towards the door.

After taking two steps, Caroline shouted out, "Wait! Wait, can I come with you? I can drive you in my car."

Claire thought about it for a moment. She hadn't taken a car to Elena's house, she had simply just flitted from one point to another or had even taken the human route and walked. But knowing that this wasn't about the amount of exercise Claire had to endure, she sighed and realized that Caroline probably didn't want to be in a room full of a bunch of humans. She nodded.

"Okay. Sure, Caroline." Claire nodded, earning Caroline to nod, too. After saying goodbye to Jenna, Mason, Damon, and Alaric, she and Caroline went outside to get back to the boarding house. Claire immediately jumped into the passenger seat and tried Stefan this time to see if he'd answer, but he didn't. Just like Christopher, he went straight to voicemail, which was definitely peculiar.

While Claire was busy inside the car, Caroline walked around to the driver's seat and pretended to drop her keys. Once she was squatted down next to the back tire, she silently broke the seal on the tire, grabbed her keys, and climbed inside the car.

* * *

"So she was the one who set the vampires up in the tomb?" Stefan asked Amelia with disbelief in his eyes. Amelia nodded solemnly as she fit another fry in her mouth and watched Stefan process the information. She could see his disgust as he scoffed and crossed his arms. "_Unbelievable. _Unbelievable! I don't get it. _Why _would she do that?"

Amelia shook her head. "That, I have no clue about. She never told me why she had to fake her death. Obviously, it's because she's running from something, but…I-I never figured out what it was. She always said that you and Damon almost ruined it for her."

The younger Salvatore stared at Amelia blankly. "Are you kidding me?" She shook her head and Stefan scoffed. "We risked our lives to try and get her out of it, and we ended up becoming _vampires_. We tried to _save _her."

The blonde shrugged. "She didn't want to be saved, Stefan."

"So then Damon and I died for _nothing!"_

"No, Stefan," Amelia retorted, sighing. Still pissed, the Salvatore looked up at her and caught her gaze. "You didn't die for Katherine, you died for love. You love might've been _misplaced, _but…" The girl shrugged. "It's a very noble way to die, at least."

Things were silent before Stefan asked, "You said she found you on the streets of Delaware?" She nodded. "Did she just…turn you out of the blue?"

This time, her head moved side to side. "I was malnourished, I had gotten sick with the influenza…I was dying very _slowly_. She saved me." Amelia looked off into the crowd at the Grill in thought, but then coughed. "But it doesn't matter now. I'll never choose Katherine over my own sister. Or…well, my adoptive sister, I guess."

"So you think that's what she's here for?" Stefan filled in, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "Claire? To ruin her life again?"

Amelia looked up at Stefan and nodded. "I think that's one of the reasons why she's here. But if there's anything I've learned about Katherine, it's that she can multitask." The girl paused for a moment and sighed. "And that there's _always _a secret agenda."

* * *

"So you escaped from the tomb because of George's help, but…what did he get in return?" Christopher asked Katherine as she stared down at the alcohol and sighed.

"Do you have anything _other _than bourbon? I'm starting to get bored with it."

"Answer the question and I'll raid Claire's tequila stash."

Katherine looked up at him. "Something that he wanted _desperately." _Christopher stared at her, awaiting clarification for the vague answer, but she just stood her ground. He scoffed.

"You can deal with the bourbon," he ordered, causing Katherine to scowl at him. He poured himself another glass as he spoke again. "So what was so drastic that you had to send 26 vampires to their _death _just to fake your own? What were you running from?"

Again, the female vampire gave another vague answer. "Everyone has a past, Christopher. Mine needed to stay _far, _far away." Katherine's next words were of the highest mockery. "But thanks to everyone's favorite _trio, _my plan fell apart. Claire was pitied by Emily, who kept her from the town while the roundup was going on and made her a daylight ring. Your parents found out about you being a vampire and they sent you off to the church with the rest of them. Stefan's father used his love for me against him; he poisoned Stefan's blood. Then Damon, being Damon, nearly ruined _everything." _

Of course, Christopher knew she was referring to how Damon and Stefan tried to get Katherine out of the cages before she was taken to the church and ended up getting shot. He scoffed at her distaste for the memory.

"They _died _for you and you consider them a problem?" Christopher asked, cocking an eyebrow. "You're even more heartless than I thought."

Katherine shrugged. "I didn't want to be saved."

* * *

"Jenna just brought out Guitar Hero," Mason exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen where Elena and Damon were hush-whispering about the person that'd just walked up to them. Upon Mason's arrival, they silenced. "It might be time to mutiny."

He put two empty beer bottles on the counter and Elena took them away with a shy smile. Damon locked eyes with Mason. "Well, I just happen to like Guitar Hero. So you, my friend, are barking up the wrong tree."

Mason stared Damon down and eventually scoffed. "Okay. Enough with the innuendos. You win. You're hilarious."

"Thank you." Damon smirked proudly.

"Come on, man, you don't think I know what this barbecue is about?" Elena surveyed the two men in front of them, both of them facing each other head-on. She was uncomfortable, but she knew she had to stay and make sure Damon didn't step out of line. She didn't trust him any more than Claire did.

The elder Salvatore narrowed his eyes accusingly. "How do you know about me? Your brother was completely _clueless." _

"It doesn't matter. I'm not your enemy, Damon."

"You tried to kill my brother," Damon retorted, shrugging. Mason looked at him with apologetic eyes.

"That was a mistake!"

"Really?"

"There was confusion. I couldn't chain myself up in time. I have no control once I shift!"

"Aw. What, no obedience school?"

"Damon," Elena warned him through her teeth. "Can we not do this…_right _now?"

The vampire waved his hand dismissively in front of Elena's face and Mason stepped forward. "I'm serious. Let's not spark some age-old feud that doesn't apply to us."

"You expect me to believe that you're in Mystic Falls planting _peace trees_?"

Mason shook his head at the heartless vampire that was trying to get inside of his mind. He spoke softly this time. "I lost my brother. My nephew lost his father, I'm here for my family. Let's be above this."

The wolf stuck out a hand for the vampire to take, and Elena and Damon shared a look with each other. Elena was obviously urging Damon to take the peace offering, and Damon finally reached forward and shook Mason's hand, negotiating a pact. But when Mason turned away without a word, Elena saw Damon staring after him with intent in his eyes. Elena was too smart to think that Damon would just let it go.

"Damon, _don't_," Elena said slowly, but Damon set his alcohol down on the silver set box that was closed and he pulled open the bottom drawer on it. Elena watched as he drew the silver knife, and she sighed as he walked away from her with a tight smirk.

* * *

As Caroline drove down the back roads to get to the boarding house, she sung, "Here we come! To the rescue."

Claire peered at her from the side. "Is there a reason you're being snippy with me right now?"

Caroline sighed. "It's my own drama, Claire. I mean…I'm sure you two will beat the odds and everything. Not that there's any study to pull odds _from_. Spending _forever _with only one person?" She scoffed. "You know, what _is _the ratio for vampire marriages these days? I'm guessing nil."

The elder vampire stared at her protégé for a moment before beginning to laugh uncontrollably. Caroline peeked at her sire with a raised eyebrow and Claire's laughter died down after a while.

"All right, Caroline. That's enough. I get it…heightened emotions and all, but keep the thoughts to yourself." It was just funny, watching as Caroline projected her own doom and gloom emotions on Claire. The younger vampire frowned.

"Sorry."

The two vampires sat in silence as Caroline drove speed limit to the boarding house. But only a few seconds passed in their silence before the two heard a noise from the back and the car started to slow without Caroline's control. They eventually stopped on the side of the road, and Caroline looked over at Claire with her lip between her teeth.

"Oh, crap. I think we have a flat."

* * *

"No takers for more drinks at the Grill?" Mason called out, disappointed as Alaric and Jenna both shook their heads and gave each other a knowing look. He laughed. "It's like I'm with a bunch of _adults _here!"

"I prefer the term _role model,_" Jenna corrected, knowing Elena was in the kitchen talking with Damon. The wolf shrugged.

"Ah…okay. Well, thanks for having me! It was awesome." He hugged Jenna and then straightened to shake hands with Alaric. "Alaric? Catch that game next week?"

"Yeah. Looking forward to it."

"Hey, you know, I should…I should probably head out, too," Damon added as he walked out of the kitchen with Elena on his tail. Mason gave Damon a curt nod and left while Damon said goodbye to Jenna and Alaric. "Jenna. You are a _wonderful _hostess."

Elena rolled her eyes and watched as Damon grabbed her aunt's hand and kissed it chivalrously, but Jenna wasn't taking it. The human teenager laughed seeing Jenna rip her hand out of Damon's grasp.

"And _you _are a terrible artist."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "Is that the only thing that makes me _terrible_?"

Jenna narrowed her eyes into slits. "Still deciding."

"Good enough for me! Alaric…let's _not _catch that game next week."

With a smirk, the vampire left the Gilbert household with that and Elena stared after him, but she knew what Damon was going to do. It was wrong, she realized, for Damon to go stabbing Mason Lockwood. In a split decision, she shook her head.

"Uh…Jenna, I'm gonna head over to Stefan's. I'll be back soon," Elena lied as she grabbed her coat, keys, and walked out of the house before Jenna could even give her permission. When Elena stepped out into the cold, she found that Damon had already taken off to go to the Grill, and she took in a deep breath. She needed to find him before he did something he'd regret.

* * *

The sun was just setting down by the time they had come to a slow, and Caroline promised that it wouldn't take more than a few minutes for the tow to come. Claire agreed to wait with her instead of just flitting back to the boarding house because Caroline insisted that she didn't want to be alone. But Claire was running out of patience; the night had fallen, crickets chirped, and they were still waiting for a tow truck.

"What kind of idiots are these people? We've been waiting forever. It's not a big town!"

"I know," Caroline agreed, nodding. "It's…weird. You know, they said they'd be here by now."

The elder vampire sighed. "You know what, I'll just go to the boarding house and get my car after I make sure Christopher's okay—"

"No! Just…let me try the tow people again. And I'll use my _aggro _voice." Caroline brought her phone up to eyesight while Claire shrugged.

"Caroline, we're vampires. We can be at the boarding house in _seconds_…"

Caroline stepped in front of her as Claire tried to brush past to leave. "I can't just leave my car, Claire."

"Then we'll come back for it later."

"Just give me a _minute, _okay?"

"Just stay here with your car! Hopefully, by then, the two people will have come already and I can come back to give you a ride. But I've got to get back to the house, okay?" Claire stepped forward again, but this time, her protégé snapped.

"What's the rush? Why are you hurrying to get back to a relationship you know will _never _work?"

This time, the pissed-off blonde crossed her arms. "Excuse me?"

"Vampires are not made for monogamy, Claire! We hunt, we kill, and we bring a different person home every night!" Caroline shouted desperately. "You and Christopher are _pretending _to be human, but you're not!"

"I'm sorry," Claire hissed, the thought completely escaping her that Caroline was turned by her own blood. "But how long have you been a vampire? A week or something? Guess what, Caroline! I've been a vampire for over 100 _years_. And you will _not _take your own personal problems and project them onto me again, do you understand me?"

Caroline cowered for a moment under Claire's hard gaze, and the two female vampires stood for a while in complete silence until Caroline whispered, "I-I'm sorry, Claire. I was…just trying to be your friend."

With a sigh, Claire shook her head. "I can't…deal with this right now, Caroline. Okay?" She walked around the other blonde and found a pair of headlights coming towards them and turned around at Caroline again. "Look. There's your tow truck. I'll see you later."

"Claire, please!" Caroline reached out and grabbed Claire's arm hard, but Claire just slapped it away back to Caroline's side and spun around at her with eyes flaring. Before she could say anything, the tow truck pulled up to the both of them and surveyed the two.

"Hey, there. Someone call about a flat tire?"

Claire looked at the guy in the truck and then back at Caroline, who was looking at her with crazed eyes. Confused beyond belief, Claire scoffed. "Yep. _She_ did."

This time, Caroline couldn't stop her from leaving. Claire walked away to start heading out to the boarding house, and in a moment, she was gone.

* * *

In the large alleyway between the Grill and the courthouse, Mason parked his car and climbed out of it so that he could go inside the facility and get a drink. He rolled up his sleeves, preparing for a good time, but he soon found Damon walking towards them. Damon blended into the night with his all-black ensemble.

"Damon?" Damon just smirked at the wolf. "What, more dog jokes?"

"Nah. Those got old." In one fluid motion, Damon just stuck the silver knife into Mason's heart and kept walking forward. Mason doubled over, coughed, and fell to the floor, but Damon left him there on the street to die while he went to go inspect the wolf's car.

Elena had tried to catch up to Damon before anything happened, but she realized she was a second too late. She broke out into a sprint once she saw Mason on the floor, and she jogged up to the dying wolf and gasped.

"Damon!" she shouted at the vampire in all black surveying the Lockwood's car. "Are you crazy? Why'd you do that?! He tried to make peace!"

Damon scoffed. "I don't make peace, Elena. Peace gets me killed." He opened the back of Mason's car without turning around to Elena, but the human teenager just watched in curiosity and confusion as Mason started to grasp at the knife in his chest. He pulled it out and let it fall to the ground.

"Damon…" Elena trailed off, causing Damon to turn around at the sound of Elena's warning and the knife dropping onto the concrete.

"You know," Mason started, getting up from the street. He sauntered toward Damon. "I think it was werewolves who started this whole silver myth. Probably for moments like this." Damon avoided Mason at all costs in fear of a very pissed-off wolf.

"Elena, get inside," Damon warned the human, and with only a moment of hesitation, Elena complied. Damon looked back at Mason. "Duly noted."

Mason felt the dry blood on his shirt and looked up at Damon with disappointment. "And I was _really _looking forward to last call." The wolf walked up to Damon, and the vampire tried not to cringe at the proximity knowing that a werewolf bite could kill a vampire. "Now you've made an enemy."

Damon's eyes amusingly traced over Mason, but the wolf turned and went back into his car, so Damon turned and went to go find Elena in the Grill.

After hearing Damon's warning, Elena had run inside the Grill to get into a populated area just in case Mason decided to do something drastic. She sighed around the people and looked around at residents that she knew. But what surprised her the most was when she saw Stefan sitting at a booth by the billiard table with Amelia King, the girl she'd seen at the Lockwood memorial.

"What do you think Katherine will do to her?" Stefan asked Amelia, never breaking eye contact. "Kill her?"

Amelia shook her head. "It's not about the kill for Katherine. At least, not yet. I think, right now, she's trying to isolate Claire. Wreck her relationships. She wanted me to make you turn against her, there's no doubt she's trying to do the same with Christopher, and she already told Claire about Lexi…which made her so pissed off at Damon that she's isolating _herself _from him. But I think Katherine's first priority is wrecking Claire and Christopher's marriage."

"Can't you convince her to stop?"

"She'll kill me and won't bat an eye, Stefan. Trust me, I've seen her kill our closest friends before."

"Well, we have to do something," Stefan pressed, leaning back in his chair. "If Katherine keeps coming after Claire, there's gonna be a lot more collateral damage than we need. Plus, with all the werewolves running around town…and not to mention the fact that we don't even know the real reason why Katherine's _back_—"

"Stefan?" Elena asked as she came up to the table he and Amelia were sitting at. Amelia and Stefan both broke their eye contact to see Elena walk up to them, looking back and forth between the two. Amelia surveyed Elena, but immediately deemed that it wasn't Katherine. Elena felt a wave of jealousy overcome her, Damon's words finally getting burned to her memory: _Mrs. Amelia Salvatore. _

"Elena?" Stefan realized immediately, straightening in his seat. "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"No," Elena replied, but then amended her statement. "Well…yeah, I guess _something's _wrong, but…it can wait." Elena looked at Amelia. "I'm Elena."

"I know." Amelia gave the teenager a tight smile and looked over at Stefan and cleared her throat. "Um…Stefan told me about you."

"Elena, what happened?" Stefan pushed, concerned now. Elena looked at Amelia again and Stefan caught the gesture. "It's fine. Trust me, she's…she's here to help."

Elena looked back and forth between the two vampires. "It's just…it's just Mason Lockwood. Damon just…well, in short, he kind of made things a _lot _worse."

She looked elsewhere to see Damon sitting down at the bar as he ordered a drink, and Amelia and Stefan looked in that direction as well and saw the same thing. They turned around and shared a glance, knowing that it only added one more problem to their list.

* * *

"All right, I'm done playing games." Christopher set the bourbon glass down on the coffee table and looked up at the sly Katherine Pierce. "I want an honest answer. What are you doing back here?"

The doppelgänger groaned. "Haven't you heard a word I've been saying? I've told you five times over now."

"You've told me _lies _five times over now. Tell me the truth this time." Katherine was silent and Christopher scoffed. "Fine. Then I'll tell you what the truth is, or part of it, anyway. You came back here to finish what you started. You're trying to destroy Claire again."

Katherine shot Christopher a teasing glance. "Now that wasn't very creative. It's a given." Claire's husband scoffed at the female vampire, who just dropped her amused look. "But I want what I want, Christopher. And I don't care what I have to do to get it. My list of victims is a _long _one and I have _no_ problem adding one more name to that list, even if it has to be short and sweet."

"If you wanted Claire dead, she'd be dead by now," Christopher retorted, getting into Katherine's mindset. "You've had a century to kill her and you haven't taken your shot. What are you waiting for?"

The cat-like vampire shrugged. "Nothing. I can still kill her if I want to. If I have to, I mean. I would prefer to keep her around to further her suffering, but I _will_ drive a stake through her heart so fast she won't even see it coming from a mile away if need be."

Now that pissed him off. He was done playing Katherine's game, finished with her run-around tactics. Christopher flashed and had Katherine by the throat, but she flipped the tables and threw him onto the couch. He fought against her as she crawled on him, but she only purred seductively.

"Love; hate. Like I said, it's such a fine line. Now I see why it's so appealing to Damon and Claire," she whispered, her lips just at Christopher's ear. Christopher stopped struggling, finding it useless, and Katherine chuckled. "I guess you don't hate me as much as you thought you did, huh?"

With a growl, Christopher flipped their positions so they fell on the floor, and he kept one hand tightened around her hands and the other around her throat. His legs pinned her down as he hissed in her face, but this only made Katherine angrier. She wrangled her way out of his grasp and kicked him in the abdomen. She then flashed up, leaving Christopher doubled over on the floor.

"I don't want you seeing Claire anymore," Katherine snarled at him, from her position of absolute power. "I want you to tell her that your marriage is _over. _No more second chances." The strong vampire bent down and grabbed a fistful of Christopher's bronze hair and yanked it up so that he was looking her straight in the eye. From the base of his throat, Christopher let out a growl. "If you don't remove her from your life completely, I will kill everyone she has ever _met _while she watches and then I'll kill her while _you _watch. Do you understand me?"

A sick chuckle escaped Christopher's mouth. "So much for being in love with me, huh, Katherine?"

She bent down to be inches from his lips. "I am in love with you. And you're in love with me, too, you just don't know it yet."

"I have never and _will _never be in love with you, Katherine! What isn't _processing_ about that?"

"You will," Katherine assured him once and for all before yanking his head up so his lips barely brushed across hers. "You'll see."

She was just about to close the space between them when the door flew open and someone knocked Katherine off of Christopher so the female vampire stumbled back. Katherine recoiled immediately to face Claire standing between her and Christopher, entirely pissed off.

"Touch my husband _one_ more time," Claire warned. "And I _will _kill you."

Katherine snorted. "Like you could."

"What are you doing in this house, Katherine?" The blonde snarled while Katherine began to move and circle her. Claire didn't move, refusing to play Katherine's game.

"I thought it was pretty obvious."

"What do you want with him? What do you want with _me_?"

"You're asking the wrong questions," Katherine hissed as she came up behind Claire. "You know what would be a better one? _Where_ am I going to kill you? _H__ow _am I going to kill you?"

Claire shuddered as she felt Katherine's sadistic breath on her. "What, am I supposed to sleep with my eyes open from now on?"

Katherine chuckled. "Oh, Claire. Always so hateful." Finally, they came to face each other and Katherine stopped circling the blonde vampire. "It's gonna come back to bite you one day."

"You should know from experience, shouldn't you?" Claire snapped, and she saw a wave of fire beyond Katherine's eyes. Before either one of them could continue, the door to the Salvatore house flew open, and Christopher and Claire turned around to see Stefan and Amelia walk in together with concerned looks.

Claire turned around to see Katherine behind her, but instead, she found nothing but air.

* * *

Caroline sighed heavily as she turned on the tap water in the girl's bathroom at the Grill. She was so disappointed in herself for what she tried to do to Claire all day. Her sire's angry face kept popping up in Caroline's mind, almost shaming her. And it was just pure irony that, in that moment after she'd washed her hands, Caroline looked up in the mirror to find Katherine standing behind her with a peeved expression.

Slowly, Caroline turned around. "Katherine."

"Care to share how you couldn't follow through with _one _simple task?" scolded the other vampire. Caroline scrambled for an excuse.

"I…I tried, okay? But I couldn't exactly _kidnap _Claire! She's older and stronger than I am," she stuttered. Katherine was far from amused.

"Occupy her. That's _all_ I asked."

Again, Caroline tried to come up with a plus to prevent Katherine from getting too angry with her over her failure. "I-I told her what you said about vampires not being monogamous and…you know, all that passionate…bad-boy stuff. And I-I think I…" Katherine stepped closer without saying a word, but it was the most frightening feeling Caroline had ever experienced. "I really think that I got to her!"

Katherine looked at the young newborn vampire with widened eyes. "God, what is it about you blondes? Thinking that you own the world. It's so annoying." Katherine shifted and Caroline swallowed hard as Katherine nodded. "But I hope you did get through to her, Caroline. Because let's not forget—I _already _killed you once. I can easily do it again."

Katherine turned to leave, and Caroline was soon left in the bathroom of the Mystic Grill, shaking from the experience of the frightening brunette who looked exactly like her best friend. After cooling herself down from the beads of sweat that had emerged because of Katherine's arrival, Caroline wallowed in her own self-pity at a table in the Grill. Her hands traced the side of a coffee cup as she sat by herself, but it was when she sensed someone familiar that she looked up to see Claire and Christopher walk into the Grill with their back turned to her.

Unable to help herself, Caroline called out, "Claire?"

Claire spun around on her heel, not bothering to hide her anger. "Hi, Caroline."

"Hey." They stood in silence for a moment before Christopher touched Claire's arm softly.

"I'm gonna go get us a table." Claire nodded to him and watched as he left the two girls to work out their issues, and when Claire turned back at Caroline, the apology rushed out of the young vampire's mouth.

"Oh, my God. I am _so _sorry about earlier today. I don't—I don't know what came over me!"

Claire stopped her, holding up a hand. "Relax, Caroline. It's fine. In all honesty, I shouldn't have yelled at you. Everything you were saying was…the truth." The elder vampire paused. "I just really hate to think about it sometimes."

"So…you're not mad at me?"

Claire gave the blonde a small smile. "No, I'm not mad at you. You were just being a friend…in your own, special way. A new _vampire _way."

"My own head case, _horrible _way," Caroline corrected her, still feeling bad about pressing her on all the things she was ordered to. Claire nodded once and turned to go meet up with her husband at the table, but Caroline called her back with her name. "Claire? I really am sorry."

The two blondes stared at each other before Claire nodded. "I know, Caroline. Look, we'll try curving your cravings later. Tonight's not a good night for it."

Caroline said nothing, but just watched as Claire walked over to the table Christopher had gotten in the center of the Grill's main floor. He had ordered them two glasses of alcohol, and once she reached the table and sat down, he sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm _starving_."

The pissed-off blonde scoffed. "Yeah, well, spending a day with a crazy, psychotic _bitch _who's now claiming she's in love with you will have that effect on people."

Christopher looked over at her. "Look, I know you're upset about that, but—"

"Upset? Why would I be upset? It's not like someone's out trying to destroy me or anything because that would just be _insane…_" Claire trailed off, sarcasm dripping off of her words. Christopher leaned closer to her.

"Hey, we need to take her _seriously. _This isn't just locking you up in a cell this time, she's out for blood. _Your _blood, if it comes down to it."

The female shrugged. "Let her come for me. I'll kill her without blinking."

"Claire, that's not the _point!" _A frustrated Christopher slammed his hand down on the table, but she didn't jolt. She just stared at him. "You might not be afraid of her, but we _should _be. Katherine is dangerous, okay? She won't stop at anything to destroy you. That's what this is all about."

Claire rolled her eyes. "If Katherine had her way, we'd be filing divorce papers at the city hall." She paused. "Which…I don't even think is possible. I'm pretty sure they don't divorce marriages from 1865—"

"If today taught me anything at _all, _it's that Katherine usually gets her way. And she won't stop to get it, no matter what the cost."

"I'd rather die before she gets her way again! I became a _vampire_ because of her!"

"And she won't hesitate to kill you again, what don't you understand about that, Clarissa?" Christopher spat, earning them to both fall completely silent. Over at her table, Caroline felt a swarm of guilt overcome her as she realized that she's the one who caused this. That _she _would have to report this all back to Katherine.

After a long silence, Claire swallowed. "You don't actually think we should listen to her, do you?" Christopher didn't say anything. "Oh, come on! This is what she _wants. _She _wants _us to fight; she wants to get between us! You're just letting her win! We can't let her get between us, that's the only way we'll survive."

Christopher let out a heavy sigh and avoided his wife's gaze for a moment before he looked at her with his sea of ice-colored eyes. His voice dropped to a whisper.

"She already _has _gotten between us, Claire."

Things fell completely silent this time, and neither one of the vampires said a single word to the other. The couple were stuck, they were at a complete impasse that they were sure they wouldn't be able to get out of. Eventually, Claire grabbed her jacket on the back of her chair and nodded.

"Fine. Fine, if that's what you think, then…" Claire threw her jacket over her arm and used her right hand to twist off the band of rings on her ring finger. She set them in front of Christopher, who hung his head shamefully. "Consider it a divorce."

Claire left promptly, not wanting to spend another minute in the presence of her now ex-husband. When she was gone, Christopher sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, stressed.

Damon sat at the bar in the midst of the Mystic Grill, having witnessed the entire fight. As hard as he tried, he couldn't help the small, growing smile that settled upon his lips at the thought of one single word: _divorce. _

When Damon finally left the Grill from the front door, he realized that as happy that he was about the fight he'd overheard, he still had a major problem: Mason Lockwood. As he continued down the sidewalk to go home, he heard a familiar voice.

"Bad day?"

Damon looked to the side to find Katherine standing up against the wall at the Grill. He stopped and stared, confused as to why she'd show up to see _him_.

"Bad century," he corrected her, staring at her signature pout. "I heard you were on the _loose_. You know, you're a lot of things, Katherine. But I never had you pegged as a home-wrecker." He gave her a sour smile.

Katherine tilted her head at the dark-haired vampire. "What's the matter? Jealous I spent the day with Christopher?"

He shrugged. "I don't do jealous. Not with you. Not anymore." Done with the conversation, Damon began to walk away from Katherine to avoid giving into one of her games again. However, Katherine followed him, trailing behind.

"Then why so pouty?"

"I tried to kill a werewolf and failed." He sighed. "Now I feel like I'm not living up to my best self."

"Well, werewolves aren't easy prey."

Damon turned around at her sharply. "What do you know about werewolves?"

"Why don't you ask Christopher? I'm sure he'd love to fill you in." He didn't say anything to her and watched as Katherine put a hand on her hip. "Don't try to be the hero, Damon. You'll end up dead."

"Been there, done that," he spat at her. "At least this time, it'll be _worth _it."

His statement obviously offended Katherine, but she didn't let it show. With that being said, Damon turned on his heel and walked off having had the last word. Katherine stared after him and sighed, trying not to let his hateful words get to her. She, herself, spun around and went in the other direction.

* * *

A tired Claire entered the Salvatore boarding house with a sigh and put her jacket on the coatrack at the door. She placed her keys on the table by the stairs and stood there for a moment, her light hair curtaining the sides of her face as she bowed her head. However, when she sensed someone beside her, she straightened and stiffened, and then turned around.

Christopher was standing a few feet away from her in the parlor with his hands in his pockets and his jacket off so that he was only wearing his t-shirt now. Claire sighed heavily at him and, after a second of appreciation, walked up and pressed her lips against his. He kissed her back immediately, pulling her closer to him and sighing into her mouth. Eventually, Claire pulled back, but still kept herself in his arms.

"God, I never want to hear the word 'divorce' out of my mouth _again_," she whispered breathlessly.

Christopher nodded. "I know. I know, I know. We need to make a list of things we can't say to each other while we're doing this."

"Agreed." Claire stepped back from him, but he kept her hand in his to feel the warmth. Stefan and Amelia stepped up into the foyer from the parlor and Claire and Christopher looked at them. "Did you see Caroline?" Her voice was filled with disappointment.

Stefan and Amelia nodded. They were at the Grill, too, hiding somewhere in the specks of people here and there. Amelia spoke sadly, "I had a feeling it was her. I just didn't know for sure."

"Well, you were right," Christopher told his wife's sister. "Katherine definitely got to her."

"She was hanging on to every _word," _Claire commented. "I wouldn't be surprised if the exact argument shows up in a book somewhere."

"It won't be long until Katherine gets a play-by-play," Stefan agreed. Claire sighed.

"I really wish I had been wrong," the blonde said, feeling pity for her vampire protégé. "But this wasn't just a normal case of heightened emotions. It was so _obvious_ that she was up to something today."

Amelia scoffed. "It's just who Katherine is. She always has someone to do her dirty work for her. Once upon a time, that was me. I really wish it hadn't been, though."

"Damon was listening, too," Christopher noted as he looked around at all of them. He didn't take that as a sign of him working for Katherine, but as a sign of him believing it. Their plan had worked.

"Are we gonna tell him the truth?" Claire asked her sister and her friend. Stefan shook his head immediately.

"The only way Katherine's gonna believe it is if everybody believes it. It's the best way to make her think that she's getting what she wants. I'm not even going to tell Elena. For now, you both just need to pretend that you're not married anymore," the younger Salvatore reasoned. But, for some reason, Claire couldn't shake the feeling that it would hurt more of them if Damon didn't know than if he didn't. Instead of saying anything, however, she moved on with a sigh.

"All this just because she decided she's in love with my husband." Claire peeked over at Christopher as she said it and watched as he shook his head out of disbelief.

"She's lying," Christopher said, refusing to believe any of it. "We don't know _what _she's after, but Amelia's right. She can multitask. And all we know right now is that she wants to destroy your life and finish what she started back in 1864." Amelia and Stefan nodded in agreement with his statement and Christopher turned to look at his wife. "Katherine doesn't care about me, she never did. If there's anything we all know for certainabout her, it's that she doesn't care about _anybody _but herself."

Claire looked up at her husband and he nodded at her and squeezed her hand, and she did the same. Her left hand felt like it was naked without the two rings on them, but they couldn't do anything about that. For now, those rings would have to go back in the box and had to stay there until further notice.

* * *

**Mystic Falls, 1865**

_After escaping the burning church, Katherine moved out onto the open road that she had promised to meet George Lockwood at for her final escape. She looked to the side to see Stefan and Damon's dead bodies laying on the gravel road, and she sighed. She hadn't meant for them to get caught in this. _

_Suddenly, Katherine felt a presence beside her and she turned to see George Lockwood. "George." _

"_Your carriage is waiting," he said, gesturing to the side. Katherine smiled. _

"_Well done, George. Thank you." She moved to walk forward, but George stopped her in her tracks. _

"_Ah. Now, onto your part of the deal." _

_Realizing that he wasn't going to give up on this, Katherine sighed and pulled out the moonstone, a clear stone, from her dress and extended it to George who looked at it in wonder. _

"_If anyone learns of my escape, I will find you and I will kill you," she warned. George reached out to grab the stone, but she jerked it back. "Don't think that I won't." _

_Finally, she gave George the moonstone and watched him as he looked at it as a father would look at his child. Katherine was clearly unimpressed before he looked up at her and nodded. _

"_We shall take each other's secrets to the grave." Katherine stiffened. "Now, you must hurry." _

"_Wait, just one moment," Katherine said, stopping George. He looked at her, impatient. "Do you know if Christopher Fell is at home? I'd like to bring him with me." _

_George turned to face her and stopped, raising an eyebrow at the vampire before him. "Christopher Fell was caught and put in the tomb. You said twenty-seven vampires." _

_Katherine blinked at George, her breathing quickening. "I did say twenty-seven vampires, George. And with Christopher, it would've been twenty-eight."_

_George shook his head. "No. The Founders rounded twenty-seven vampires, Katherine. Mr. Fell included. Now, please. You must go before someone learns your demise was false." _

_The vindictive vampire watched as George Lockwood left for the carriage, expecting her to follow, but she just stood there for a moment and wondered what this meant. If there were 27 vampires collected and put into the tomb and Christopher was one of them that meant that one vampire had gotten out... _

_And that's when it hit Katherine: one vampire didn't even have to show up. One vampire that she wanted dead most of all. _

_Clarissa King; she was still alive. _

_But instead of dwelling on that, Katherine thought about the fact that Christopher was burning to ash as she stood there, awaiting her escape. She felt a heavy feeling on her heart realizing how wrong her plan had gone. Without realizing it, Katherine felt a tear leak down her cheek and she reached up to wipe it away. Katherine pushed the thought out of her head, as much as it was paining her inside. _

* * *

Katherine stood in the middle of the Mystic Falls town square, staring up at the waning moon and the cloudy sky. Thinking of the saddening memory, Katherine felt a tear fall down on her cheek almost as if it were planned. Immediately, she pulled her hand up to swat it away and she laughed, thinking of it almost poetically.

Rocking back and forth, Katherine watched as a cloud of mist covered the sky, and she turned to leave the town's square, satisfied with how things had gone during the day.

* * *

**Sorry if it seems like Claire's taking Elena's place lately. I kind of needed it during these episodes but I'm hoping that the next couple chapters will be a little different to the point where everyone's not bored. Anyways, thanks for reading! Review, please!**

* * *

**Savage Kill: **Yep. Things with Damon and Claire will never be easy. "Back together" is a relative term...just wait and see :) As we saw from this chapter, Katherine _definitely _had some fun with Claire and it won't stop just yet. Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Short and simple and completely gets the point across. Thanks for reviewing!

**grapejuice101: **Thanks! Here's the Memory Lane episode, I hope I did it justice :P I definitely will, thanks!

**bigdloveztexaz: **Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

**gloriacuevas391: **I love you too :) Thank you, that really means a lot.

**RHatch89: **Thanks for reviewing! :)

**Bella Lugosi: **Haha thanks! I worked really hard on that cover if I'm being honest here. It took me forever. Yeah, I'm super jealous of Claire since she has both Patrick J. Adams _and _Ian Somerhalder! I wish I could be as lucky as she is. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!


	19. Kill or Be Killed

**Hey, guys! Back with this chapter for the week. This is sad because I haven't finished 2x06 yet (actually, I'm nowhere near finished with it) so I've got to go on an indefinite break until I can get the chapter done and publish it. But enjoy this chapter! Hope it holds everyone over until further notice...**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Kill or Be Killed**

"I can't believe Tyler Lockwood's a werewolf," Jeremy expressed to his sister as he watched her dry her hands in their joined bathroom. Elena peered up at him in the mirror.

"We're not sure about that yet," she condescended. "The only thing we know for sure is that _Mason_ Lockwood is."

"It should be easy enough for us to figure out."

Elena stopped applying her chap stick on her lips and looked up at her brother with pointed eyes. "There is no 'us'. I said that I wouldn't keep things from you anymore; that doesn't mean that I want you involved in it."

The younger Gilbert chuckled. "By definition of being in this family, I'm involved." He showed Elena his ring. Elena tilted her head at it.

"This is dangerous, Jeremy. You have to stay out of it, okay?"

"All right," he conceded. "Just saying."

Elena watched as her brother left the bathroom, and she promptly went inside of her room afterwards to get ready for the Historical Society picnic that she was to attend in an hour or so. She opened her closet door to grab a jacket. When she shut the closet door, she jolted and the door accidentally slammed upon seeing Stefan leaning against her wall. Elena took a moment to recover her breath.

"Sorry." Stefan smiled at her. "I didn't mean to scare you." He moved forward to kiss her, and Elena smiled at him graciously as he gave her a soft, melting kiss on the lips. After the morning kiss, she pulled her boyfriend into her arms in a hug.

"Hi," she greeted him. "Where were you last night? I was worried. I called."

"I know." Stefan pulled away from her and sighed. "Claire and Christopher got into it at the Grill and she just…she needed someone."

Elena gasped, shocked. "Oh, my God. What happened?"

Stefan bit down on his tongue, trying not to give her too much information. He'd agreed to keep his girlfriend out of it, just like they'd agreed to keep his brother out of it. But he couldn't lie straight to her face. Stefan turned around and paced for a moment before sitting down on the bed with an exhale.

"Last night, while Amelia was with me, Katherine was with Christopher. She threatened to hurt Claire unless she and Christopher get a divorce," Stefan explained. Elena sat down on the bed next to him.

"Is it even possible for them _to _get a divorce? A legal one, anyway?"

Stefan shrugged. "I doubt it. But she gave him back her rings so…that's about as legal as it'll get with them."

The teenage couple stayed silent for a moment. "So…do you think they'll work it out?"

"I don't know, Elena. Katherine's presence has put a strain on all of us. I hope they will."

But despite the somber tone he was saying the words in, Stefan knew that things would work out for the best. He hoped, at least, that they could remove Katherine from their lives and everything would return to normal. Thinking of the time, Stefan sighed and pulled out his phone from his pocket. Upon seeing the hour, he reluctantly rose from his girlfriend's bed, earning the human to look up at him with a cocked eyebrow.

"I have to go," Stefan confessed.

"What? You just got here."

"I know, but…Claire just texted me," he lied. "I'm taking her to the picnic today. Christopher's going too and…well, I doubt it's going to be pretty."

"Is there something I can do to help?" Elena asked hopefully. Stefan pulled her closer and kissed her temple.

"No. I'll handle it. But I'm sure she wouldn't mind having a girl to talk to. Amelia can't really see her out in public because of the whole…" Stefan trailed off and exhaled, "_Katherine _thing."

She pulled out of Stefan's grasp. "How can we be so sure Amelia isn't double crossing us?"

The vampire scoffed. "She's not double crossing us. Trust me. I've known her since childhood."

"Exactly," the doppelgänger retorted pointedly. "You _knew_ her as a child. She could be different now, you know? It's been over a century and a half, Stefan."

Unamused at Elena's attempt to preach to him about Amelia's faithfulness, Stefan just gently touched her shoulders and tried to explain to her the veracity of Amelia's help.

"Elena, we do _not_ have to worry about Amelia. She would never do anything to betray Claire." He smiled at Elena slowly, but she didn't return the favor. He leaned forward, kissed her cheek, and said goodbye. "I'll see you at the picnic, okay?"

Elena wasn't given the chance to respond. She just nodded and then was left to her empty bedroom after Stefan had fled away to his best friend. For the next few seconds, while Elena was alone to herself, she sat back down on the bed and sighed.

"You mean, she'd never do anything to betray _you_," Elena grumbled.

* * *

201 Claiborne Woods Road.

Claire had read about Jack King's estate—he'd never had any children, he didn't have a spouse, and so the house legally belonged to the bank. But what was the bank to do with a mansion that was more expensive than the Lockwood's mansion? The King family had a very steady streak of wealth over the years, which was why Claire getting married had nothing to do with money, but rather social status. Jack King, however, didn't care about his own social status. He had enough money to sit at home like an old bum and drink top-of-the-line bourbon whiskey every day since he turned 18.

Which, in a nutshell, was exactly what he did.

What was unsurprising to Claire was that her sister decided to use the King residence as her own place of residence while she's in town. What was surprising to her was that the thought never crossed her mind to use the King residence as her own. She imagined it was just because she wanted to stay with Stefan at the more private Salvatore house. Though the King mansion was exceptionally large, it was on one of the most suburban streets in Mystic Falls. It wasn't secluded like the boarding house, it was very much in the center of things. There wasn't a whole lot of room for privacy.

Amelia answered the door immediately upon Claire's arrival, and the two sisters faced each other with a silent understanding that passed between them. It was the first time that they both looked at each other and realized that…well, they _weren't_ sisters.

"Good. You're here. We don't have a lot of time left," Amelia almost chastised, but stepped aside to reveal a human. Claire was mildly confused, but stood silently as Amelia asked the human, "Wanda? Could you please invite my sister inside?"

Wanda was an average-height woman with golden-brown hair and a politely dazed smile. Based upon her sister's question, Claire was sure that Wanda was the owner of the King residence, even though that didn't make much sense since Jack King left the estate to no one. Regardless, Claire saved her questions for later.

"Come on in," Wanda said to Claire softly, and Claire looked around for a moment before stepping into the threshold.

Amelia shut the door behind her, and Claire surveyed the interior aspect of the King house the second she stepped inside. It was much more lavish than the King's residence in 1864, but like Stefan and Damon's home, it had decayed over time and a new one was built in its place in another location. However, Jack King's house was modernly updated, complete with a contemporary-styled theme and artistic features all throughout the house. The house was a little on the older side, sure, but it had sustained the years well.

Claire didn't even notice it, but Wanda disappeared by the time her sister walked in front of her and interrupted her inventory on the King house.

"I wish I would've thought about using this place," Claire admitted. "Guess it slipped my mind."

The younger King scoffed. "It almost slipped _my _mind, but I needed a safe place away from Katherine and this was the best place I could think of."

"What's with Wanda? I thought Jack didn't leave this place to anyone. It belongs to the bank."

"It _belonged _to the bank. I compelled Wanda to buy it and she became the owner." Amelia looked towards the door. "I don't really trust Mystic Falls enough to have a house that's a free-for-all for most vampires."

Claire snorted. "Smart girl," she mumbled to herself before sighing. "Sorry I'm late, I just didn't really feel like getting out of bed this morning. It's just something about divorce that makes you not want to…I don't know, go to a _picnic_, for example."

She said these words pointedly because she distinctly saw the outline of Stefan's hair as he rounded the parlor corner with Christopher by his side and stepped up to greet the two sisters who were still at the door. Stefan leaned against the doorless threshold.

"That's not my fault," Stefan defended himself with a shrug. "You're a Founding Family, it's your duty."

She frowned. "You'd think that 145 years away from this place would strip me of that duty but…"

Her eyes moved over to Christopher, who was waiting by Stefan's side with somewhat of the same expression she wore. Stefan and Amelia caught sight of the two, and so both younger siblings made their—somewhat—silent departure into the parlor to give the falsely broken couple a moment or two of alone time.

When Claire and Christopher were done spending a moment or two lip-locked in the midst of the King foyer, Claire finally pulled away and sighed inwardly, annoyed.

"Is it really _necessary _for you to stay here?" she asked, practically grumbling the question. She, obviously, was in the worst mood she'd been in for decades. Katherine coming back to destroy her life really had that effect, as expected.

Christopher nodded sadly. "Unfortunately." He brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes and stepped back. "But it'll all be over soon."

"You can't know that."

"We'll think of something to get us out of this." He pulled her towards the parlor. Amelia was right; they didn't have much time left to talk about Katherine's downfall. While Amelia was stowing away at the King's residence during her free time, Katherine was at some bed-and-breakfast. Amelia only had a short while left before Katherine noticed she was gone.

"So you guys know what you need to do today?" Stefan asked they all convened in the parlor, not bothering to sit down. It wasn't entirely Claire's fault for being late, but they were all on edge from Katherine's threats.

"Act divorced," said the husband.

"Fight," Amelia told them pointedly. "A _lot. _Fight, fight, and fight some more." She looked up at Claire. "Which…no offense, sis, but it should be _super _easy for you."

Claire shrugged. "I'll just pretend he's Damon, then."

"And…that's another thing. Damon." Stefan crossed his arms. "Putting the whole Katherine thing to the side right now, he pissed off Mason Lockwood last night. We need to put a stop to it before Mason decides to retaliate."

"Okay. You and I can do that when we see him," Claire agreed, nodding at Stefan. "Cleaning up Damon's messes, as usual. So what are we even supposed to fight about when we see Caroline today?"

"It would be helpful if you fought about Katherine," Amelia admitted, leaning back on the couch. "Or…anything, really. It can escalate. But just know that anything you do in front of Caroline _will _get back to Katherine until we get her on our side, if that's even possible."

"It's possible," Claire promised immediately, wasting no unnecessary time answering the question. Things were silent and unhopeful for a moment before Claire scoffed. "Katherine's gotta be holding something over her! As soon as we figure out what that is, this can all be done with. We can run Katherine out of this goddamn town."

"I don't think it'll be that easy." Christopher looked up at the vampire beside him with apologetic eyes. "She's not just here for this. There's something she's waiting for."

"Well, how do we figure out what she's back for?" asked Stefan.

Almost simultaneously, the group shifted their attention to Amelia, who was thinking quietly to herself. Amelia finally caught onto the stares from her peers and immediately spoke up.

"Stop looking at me! I know just as much as you guys do when it comes to why she's here. She's not very trusting of me—not pleased, either, because I told her that I couldn't get you to turn on Claire," Amelia threw at Stefan. He sighed. "But…I guess I can try to find out."

"That's all we're asking." Claire exhaled impatiently. "The sooner we figure out why she's here, the sooner we can get ourselves out of this mess."

Amelia nodded in agreement and glanced up at the grandfather clock in the corner of the antiquely decorated parlor. "Yep. I'm all for it. But right now, we've got to cut this short. Speaking of Katherine's distrust, I wouldn't put it beneath her to have a tracking device on me. We'll lose any leverage we have against her if she figures out I'm going behind her back."

While Amelia headed for her jacket on the rack near the door, Stefan, Claire, and Christopher formed somewhat of a triangle by the couches. Stefan looked at Claire apologetically.

"You ready to go?"

The blonde grimaced. "I guess. Are you driving?"

"I guess," agreed Stefan, glancing at Christopher. "You can take her car, but don't leave too early."

"Got it." The other vampire nodded curtly and glanced over at his wife, who was not in the mood to be hanging around pretentious humans building a neighborhood park. Like the town wasn't already closely knit. There was something eating at Claire, however: doubt.

"Claire?" Stefan prompted, gesturing towards the door. She turned to him, thinking very briefly of asking for a moment alone with her husband. Instead, she decided that it was a lost cause. There was no use in reiterating what they already had told each other: _I'm sorry. It's not real; just remember that. _

"Yeah." She gave a faltering smile to her friend and looked over at Christopher with apologetic eyes, foreshadowing the day's events. "I'll…see you later."

He nodded to her, noticing the fear that rested behind her blue orbs. The pair said nothing more but parted ways to continue the façade they were forced to partake in.

* * *

"I think he's kind of handsome," Claire admitted as she and Stefan walked up towards Mason, who was taking things out of his truck to help with the picnic. Stefan glanced at her from the side as she shrugged. "If you're into that sort of look."

"What look?"

"You know…the 'surfer dude' look," she replied honestly. The other vampire paused for just a second before scoffing. Claire frowned up at Stefan. "Don't look at me like that! Blame it on this century!"

Instead of responding, Stefan and Claire came up to Mason Lockwood at his car and caught his gaze. As the two vampires approached Mason, he looked up at them in wonder.

"Claire," Mason began, giving a small, yet skeptical smile towards her. He then caught sight of Stefan and immediately dropped the smile. "And…Stefan, right? The _other _Salvatore?"

"The nice one," Stefan corrected. "The one offering an apology."

Mason shook his head tightly. "Not interested."

"Look, my brother acted impulsively."

"You think?"

Stefan chucked under his breath. "If you and Damon keep at each other's throats, somebody innocent is going to get hurt, and I don't want that."

"We," Claire rectified, throwing a glance towards Stefan and then at Mason. "_We _don't want that. And I don't just mean me, I mean all of us. There's no point for collateral damage here. Especially with…your family here and everything."

It was a veiled threat, one that Claire was very _skilled_ at keeping disguised. Stefan quickly moved on, trying to get past the threat before Mason realized how oblique it was. "So what do you say we just, uh, quit the whole alpha male fighting thing and just…call it a truce?"

Mason pointed at Stefan accusingly. "I made that same offer to your brother. He turned it down. With a knife," he added.

Claire sighed. "Yeah, well, Damon's a _child. _Again, our apologies."

"He made a mistake," Stefan reasoned. "We're here to make sure that neither one of you make another one."

Mason grabbed the box that he was leaning on and began to walk away with the ill-conceived threat of, "Tell your brother to watch his back."

"Oh, no you don't," Claire sang as she flashed in front of Mason discreetly and trapped him between herself and Stefan. Mason grimaced at her and looked between the two vampires keeping him in a stationary position. "Listen, let's dial it down with the empty threats here. We all know that vampire trumps werewolf on _any _night except for the night of the full moon. And, if I'm not mistaking, there are a _lot _of nights before the next full moon."

"I'm strong enough," Mason propositioned. This time, Stefan stepped in.

"No, or you would've killed Damon by now." The wolf was quiet. "There's _one _of you, there's _three _of us. I think you're the one who needs to watch his back."

Claire was impressed with Stefan's threat, thinking off to herself in praise while Mason sighed in defeat. "If he comes at me…"

"He won't," the younger brother assured, sticking out his hand for the werewolf. Mason reluctantly took the teenager's hand and turned. Claire stepped to the side by Stefan and allowed Mason to pass, watching as he walked away from them with the box over his shoulder.

"What are you two doing?" someone asked, and Stefan and Claire didn't even need to turn to see that Damon had blurred behind the both of them in a discreet, quick motion like Claire's earlier maneuvering to prevent Mason from getting away.

"Negotiating peace on your behalf," Stefan responded.

Damon groaned. "Ah, but I don't want_ peace_!"

His brother shrugged. "Oh. Consider it opposite day."

"Stefan." Damon stepped around both Stefan and Claire to face them, and he squinted at the two with curiosity. "Please tell me you don't seriously think that a _handshake_ just solved our problem. Claire, back me up here. You must have _some _common sense."

Claire scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Mason Lockwood was furious with you, and now he's angry with all of us. Do you want an gold medal or something for your raging _stupidity_?"

"Yeah, the first chance Mason Lockwood gets, he's gonna drive a stake through your heart," Stefan added in a sour tone. "And then through mine, and then through Claire's—all because you took it upon yourself to try to kill him." Stefan shrugged, as did Damon. "So thank you, 'cause we don't have enough problems."

With a hard clap on Damon's shoulder, the angry younger Salvatore brother walked off. Damon stared after him, knowing that what he did with Mason was wrong and that it backfired to the very extreme. However, when Damon realized that he still had a certain blonde vampire in his presence, he turned around and smiled remembering the fight she'd had with her husband at the Grill—or, rather, _ex-_husband.

"So," Damon slung an arm over her shoulder, "how _you _doing?"

Claire let out a hard exhale and elbowed Damon in the ribs, causing him to drop his arm. She kept her arms crossed, but didn't leave. Instead, she answered, "Not great, but I'm imagining that you take great pleasure in that."

"Me? Take pleasure in your unhappiness? Absolutely not!" Damon's voice oozed sarcasm, and Claire, but Claire couldn't help it—she laughed, like she always did when Damon used that tone. It was so uplifting and sour that she had no choice but to chuckle, especially after the shitty day that had already begun to unravel.

Damon's smile grew but faltered when he saw her pupils shift as her attention moved with them. He turned his head to the direction she was looking in and saw Christopher in the covered picnic area, his eyes locked with hers. Damon saw something wrong between the two; he saw something that was _definitely_ off. But before he could ask, Claire had glanced over at Damon quickly, capturing his gaze for just a moment, and then turned on her heel to go do something else.

No, Damon realized. Something definitely wasn't right.

* * *

"So, suddenly, she's in the running for Mother of the Year. Just when I'm trying to avoid her the most!" Caroline complained to Elena as they walked towards the area they were supposed to help paint for the opening of the park. Elena was deeply distracted by her own life that she was tuning in and out of Caroline's drama. Caroline realized this. "I'm…babbling. You don't want to hear all of this."

"Oh, um…no. I'm sorry," Elena apologized as Caroline started painting the wood structure. Elena walked over to the structure she was supposed to paint, herself. "Then what happened?"

"Well, I was a bitch. Which is par for the course with us," the vampire confessed, but she could tell something was bothering her best friend. "Elena? Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Elena looked up at Caroline with distracted eyes. Caroline waited as the question sank into Elena's head and the doppelgänger sighed in defeat. "It's…something that's going on with me and Stefan right now. I don't know what's come over me. Damon's kind of gotten in my head about it."

"Wait, _Damon _got into your head?" She said the sentence like Elena had committed an inexcusable crime, no doubt insinuating that she thought Elena was starting to develop feelings for Damon. This, of course, was completely and utterly incorrect.

"No!" Elena shook her head immediately. "Not like that, Caroline. Not like that. He just kept saying things to me about Amelia—you know, Claire's sister. Apparently, Stefan was in love with her back when they were kids."

Caroline stared at Elena, not understanding the point. "So?"

Elena sighed and resumed painting, trying to avoid Caroline's honest gaze. "I'm just worried, what with all this stuff happening with Claire and Christopher. I mean…Stefan spent _all _day with Amelia yesterday while I was trying to get a hold of him. I don't know, I think I'm just paranoid."

Caroline shrugged and made her brushstrokes longer. "Well, I'm sure it's nothing. And even if it's something, Stefan would tell you. He's too noble to…cheat or something."

The blonde almost scoffed at the thought, but the mention of Stefan cheating was not a joke to Elena. She turned back and opened her mouth to say something, but she found herself interrupted when Claire came up to the both of them with a hard, heavy sigh.

"So…Damon officially screwed up everything." Her shoulders rose and fell in a careless shrug. "You know, the usual song and dance. I'm starting to wonder; will it _ever _surprise me?"

"What happened?" asked Elena, looking up at Claire from the side.

"Oh, this whole thing with Mason Lockwood. Guy's out for some _serious _vengeance—that's obvious. Stefan and I tried to make peace, but…" Claire trailed off, not needing to finish her self-explanatory sentence. Mason Lockwood had become a problem that would inevitably have to be dealt with. "Anyways, what's new with you two?"

"Elena was just telling me—" Caroline's no-filter mouth was shut when Elena gave Caroline a cold, hard stare that immediately told her to shut up. At this, the blonde bit down on her lip and looked up at Claire, who was curious as to why there was a big silence. Quickly, Caroline changed the subject. "Um, never mind. So…how are you and Christopher?"

The other vampire had to admit that she was thrown off by the subject change, but when she saw Elena's interest as well, she realized that it wasn't her time to evade the question. Now was the time to act over grief of the marriage that she had presumably lost, even though it was still there at her fingertips. But she couldn't let Caroline know that—at least, not yet.

"Not good." Claire gave a sour smile to both Caroline and Elena. "You know, after 145 years apart because he was trapped in an underground cave that I had no knowledge of, you would think that this wouldn't be such a big issue. But he's convinced that Katherine's so jealous of me that she'll kill me without blinking."

"It's a logical conclusion," Elena admitted meekly. Claire looked down at her and nodded.

"You're right, but it still doesn't make sense." Claire looked between the two teenagers. "I mean, this woman has had about a century and a half to finish me off and yet…I'm_ still _here. And the fact that I'm fighting about _her _is making me…sick!"

"Katherine's dangerous, Claire." Caroline tried to help, feeling incredibly guilty that she was part of the reason Claire was so unhappy. "Maybe he's right. Besides, you never know…being divorced can have its perks sometimes."

Claire scoffed. "I spent over a hundred years, essentially _divorced, _Caroline." The two stared at each other and Claire watched in despair as Caroline's face grew even guiltier. "Its perks only last so long."

There was a silence between the three before Claire sighed and walked up to the table outside of where the two teenagers were painting. She grabbed a paintbrush and returned to Caroline and Elena with a bitterly sweet smile.

"All right, enough of this. Let's just pretend to be good, carefree Samaritans paying out civic duty."

So they did, and it was a while before things got off task. The three had done their work diligently and continued to paint coat after coat on various other things until Claire looked up by accident and found Christopher over by the center covered picnic area, his gaze wandering up until he met hers. Claire straightened and sighed heavily, expressing her distaste. She could feel Caroline's prying eyes on her and she didn't need to wait long until the teenage vampire said anything.

"Uh-oh," Caroline noted. "Longing looks are being exchanged."

Claire's head rolled around to meet Caroline's as her eyes narrowed. "I don't do _longing looks, _Caroline."

"I beg to differ," Elena interrupted from her own position a little ways away from them. Elena's eyes locked with Claire and she nodded slowly, reassuring her. Her voice was soft as she suggested, "You should go talk to him."

"What?" Caroline practically scoffed. "No. That's a _terrible _idea."

"Terrible is relative." Claire looked down at her paint bucket and, seeing that it was _almost _empty, she smiled up at Caroline. "I'm out of paint so…I'm gonna go get some."

She waved her paintbrush in front of them and stormed off in a very Claire-like manner that had neither Elena nor Caroline questioning her intentions. Caroline sighed exasperatedly after trying to get Claire to come back and not pick a fight, but it was no use. Claire's mind was set and there was no changing that.

While she stormed over to Christopher, Caroline felt Damon come up behind her. Elena was surprised by Damon's presence, but she just gasped to herself, recovered, and returned to looking at Claire and Christopher. Damon saw them as well, curious.

"What's her problem?"

"Don't worry about it," said Caroline.

Damon took her comment in stride and tore his gaze from the blonde and her ex-husband to the teenage Barbie. "Why are you being such a bitch to your mom?"

The vampire was hesitant as she looked over at him and eventually nodded before turning away. "Don't worry about it."

"I need to borrow some paint," Claire requested briskly, holding out her paintbrush for the can of paint that Christopher had. The bronze-haired vampire looked up slowly, the annoyance obvious in his movement. He turned back at her, unimpressed with her sour tone.

"Well, I guess when you turned into a vampire, you lost all of your manners," he spat before gesturing to the bucket of paint next to him. Claire dipped her paintbrush into the bucket and didn't even say a word, showcasing her emotions with her pursed lips and peeved expression. "Apparently not when it comes to Damon, though."

Claire turned her head and narrowed her eyes into slits. "What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"Damon? Don't tell me; don't tell me—" Dramatically, Christopher inhaled. "He's absolutely _thrilled _you're back on the market again, isn't he?"

This just angered Claire to her very core—she dropped the paintbrush and threw an accusing pointing finger at him.

"Don't you _dare _try and start this fight again! I wasn't the one who started this whole thing, it was _you_. You know what, why don't you take a break from trying to protect me from the _evilness _of Katherine and try to protect yourself from her _tongue _in your mouth." The two were silent until Claire scoffed and smiled bitterly. "That is, unless, you _want _that to happen."

"You're delusional." Christopher turned back to what he was doing before and shook his head. "And I'm not having this discussion."

"What, so you can accuse me of whatever you think I do with Damon but when I even _hint_ about Katherine—?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Suddenly, Stefan jumped in between the fighting couple and looked between them both. It was all a part of the act, the couple realized, and went along with it. "You two need to calm down. We can't talk about this right now."

"Why the hell not?" Claire barked.

"Because we have _ears, _Claire." Stefan hissed the words and flashed his eyes towards Damon and Caroline who were anxiously hanging onto every word. Elena watched, not receiving words but fully understanding the situation. Once caught, Damon and Caroline turned and pretended that they weren't watching. Stefan looked at the arguing couple again. "Now's not the time or the place."

Claire leaned forward and grabbed the paint an with the paintbrush hanging off the edge. She gave a sour look towards Christopher and sneered, "Yeah, well, there's _never _gonna be a time or a place to talk about it. I'm done."

With nothing more, she walked off, and Damon and Caroline both watched as Stefan gave a frustrated sigh to Christopher and apologetically walked off to help his other friend. Instead, Elena, who was deeply concerned, stopped him. She knew something wasn't right about this—the way Stefan intervened and the way Claire and Christopher acted was almost _too_ perfect.

There was something going on that she didn't know about.

"Hey," Elena stopped her boyfriend, grabbing his arm to prevent him from walking off. "What's going on? What's happening?"

Stefan sighed. "They had another fight, I—"

"I know." The teenager nodded slowly. "But…I don't get it Stefan. I _know _them. They wouldn't fight over something so—"

"Drop it, Elena," the vampire said icily, not knowing the power of his tone until it was too late and he was forced to leave anyway, hoping and preying that Caroline did not realize from Elena's statement that the fight was forged.

* * *

Damon found Mason drinking a small amount of lemonade out of a clear plastic cup by a kid's booth. He wasted no time in approaching, finding that he needed to get rid of the problem before it spun out of control.

"Hello, Mason," he greeted. Mason turned, but didn't say anything. "Working hard?"

"Doing my part."

"I heard you talked to Stefan."

"Nice guy."

"Yeah, a _lot _nicer than me," Damon agreed. Mason laughed bitterly, showing his disapproval.

"Well, nice is overrated."

Damon's eyes widened. "That's what I think!"

After taking another sip of lemonade, Mason gave the vampire an unfriendly smile. "You have a good day, Damon."

As Mason walked away, Damon smiled tightly and tried to mask his hatred of the wolf. When he cleared out, he found Claire replaced the wolf's presence by grabbing a cup of lemonade at the table. She sighed, exhausted.

"_Please _tell me that was a peace offering." She looked up at him with enticing blue orbs, but Damon just narrowed his eyes at her and avoided the veiled question with an actual one.

"What's up with you and the faux-drama?" Claire stiffened, and Damon tsked at her, disappointed. "Come on, Claire. You don't act that bitchy towards anyone except me. And you certainly wouldn't be rolling over and _taking_ it if your husband was in love with Katherine Pierce."

"Damon—"

"Not to mention the fact that you won't even _talk_ to me for more than five minutes. If you won't even do that, you wouldn't _fight _over me!"

This time, Claire wasn't so gentle. She looked at him with hard eyes and warned, "Damon, you need to back the hell off. Let it go. Got it?"

Damon's eyes roamed over the blonde's face for a moment, depicting her seriousness, before he finally sighed and shrugged.

"Fine. With pleasure." He watched as Claire gratefully sighed and brought the lemonade up to her mouth to taste, but he swiped it from her hand just before her lips.

"Hey!" Claire shouted, but Damon just gave her a small smirk and drank the lemonade for himself. Just as Claire was about to reach over for another one, Damon gagged and coughed up all of the lemonade, doubling over as he did so. Claire immediately halted all thoughts of getting a lemonade for herself and tried to help Damon as he choked up the lemonade that was sizzling in his mouth. "Damon! Damon, what the hell…?"

Damon kept coughing, his voice becoming weaker while Claire lead him over to the picnic table just a few feet away from him and let him sit down. Damon struggled to breathe, but he eventually choked out, "Vervain. _Vervain_."

"Oh, sweet _Jesus_," Claire muttered to herself, knowing that it had everything to do with Mason Lockwood. Damon coughed as quietly as he could to keep attention down, but he could feel the blood in his mouth as a result of the vervain. Desperately, Claire looked around for Stefan and found that her silent prayers for him were answered when the younger Salvatore came up beside her.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked, kneeling down to his brother.

Claire shook her head. "The lemonade. Vervain was _in _the lemonade—Damon drank it."

Stefan looked around for Mason Lockwood, coming to the same conclusion that Claire had almost instantly. Instead of searching for long, he looked back at his brother who shoved the two other vampires away in anger. Damon stormed over to the side of the picnic platform and grabbed a bottle of water lying on a table, murmuring threats that only he knew the words to. He gurgled and Stefan patted his brother's back to help.

"I'm gonna kill him," the dark-haired vampire snarled as he turned around, ready to pounce. Instead, Stefan kept him back and shoved him on the bench right underneath Damon, even though both vampires put up a fight. Claire stood to the side, anxiously looking around to see if they were being too noticeable. "I'm not listening to any more of your 'give peace a chance' crap! He's _dead_!"

Stefan restrained his brother, who grunted and finally calmed down from the amount of rage he was feeling. Slowly, Stefan nodded.

"Okay. I don't like it, but he's making threats. He could expose us. We need to put him down." Impressed, Damon nodded.

"All right. Let's do it." He looked up at Claire, who wasn't objecting to the thought. He spotted Mason out of the corner of his eye, trekking up the dirt-covered hill with the trash in his hand. "Woods. Trash duty. Come on."

Complying, Stefan followed his brother to the woods to go find Mason, and Claire was ready to be right behind them. But she looked out into the crowd, trying to find her husband, who she couldn't see at the moment. She was hesitant, but eventually, she took off in the direction that both Salvatore brothers had gone in, and they ended up right in the forest surrounding Mason so that there was no possible way for him to escape any one of them.

"Don't look so surprised," Damon patronized. "You knew this was inevitable."

Mason looked around him, but he was trapped. All three vampires had gained the upper hand. The wheels in his head began to turn to try to find a way out—some way he could run—but there was none. Damon could see this strategic failure in Mason's eyes and stared with icy eyes.

"Go ahead. Run." His voice was emotionless and severely pissed off. "I'll give you a head start."

Instead of doing what Damon thought Mason would do, the wolf ducked, and a bullet hit Damon's shoulder almost instantaneously. More shots fired, and Stefan was taken down easily. Claire was brought to the ground as well, falling flat on her side along with Stefan and Damon, who dropped as well.

Sheriff Forbes and her deputies held their guns, ready to shoot any one of the vampires if need be.

"Thank you, Mason," said Sheriff Forbes graciously. But on the inside, she was deeply disappointed that Damon—her closest friend—was such a liar. And even Claire, who hadn't been as close but was still a member of the council, was one as well.

So with no regret and only discontent, Liz injected a dose of vervain into each of the three vampires, causing them all to fade to unconsciousness and weakness.

* * *

To wake Damon, who was the first to come to terms, Sheriff Forbes kicked his leg and it caused the vampire's eyes to flutter open. She aimed at his leg and fired off her gun in Damon's thigh, causing blood to sputter out and a scream to sound in all of their ears from Damon's lips. Liz loaded another bullet.

"This is how it's gonna work," she began just as Claire began to stir beside Damon, groaning as she woke. Regardless, Liz barreled on. "Answer me and you don't get shot. Understand?" Damon didn't say anything. "How many of you are there?"

"Liz, please," a weak Damon groaned.

The gun went off again, this time in Damon's other leg. Claire's eyes fully opened hearing the scream, and she was suddenly very awake. She rolled over from her side, causing the deputies to point their guns at her defensively, awaiting attack. As Damon's screams died, Claire shook her head against the floor of what seemed like an underground cave.

"Liz, _stop this_!" Claire shouted breathlessly while Sheriff Forbes loaded another bullet. She forced herself up onto her elbows and shook her head again. "We're not your enemies, I promise you."

The deputy beside Claire fired at her, shooting the flesh of skin to the left side of her abdomen. Claire shouted in pain and was forced back onto the floor, writhing in the discomfort.

"How did you fool us?" Liz asked, directing the question to either Claire or Damon. "How do you walk in the sun?"

When no one answered, she fired again. This time, it did not go towards either Damon or Claire—it went to Stefan, who was still out cold over on the other side of his brother because of his dietary choices.

"No." The blonde vampire swallowed. "No, no, _no_…goddamn it, Liz, stop!"

"Answer the questions," Liz pressed. Neither Damon nor Claire responded to her interrogation tactic. "I _will _drag this out painfully."

Damon, who had turned his head to see his unconscious younger sibling, finally turned back to Liz and choked out, "But you're my friend."

"Our friendship was a lie." Sheriff Forbes shook her head tightly. "Answer me and I'll kill you fast." The two vampires were too stubborn for their own good. They remained silent, and when Liz realized that they would never give up their trade secrets, she made a rash decision. "They're not gonna tell us anything. Kill them all. Let's do this. Each with a stake in the heart, then burn them."

Liz overlooked her deputies as they bent down to kill the vampires, but there was a creak at the front of the underground Lockwood cellar they had brought the vampires into. Hearing it, Liz nodded to the deputy above Damon.

"Check it out."

As the deputy went to go inspect the noise, Liz came around behind him with her gun held high, ready to shoot any vampire who dared save them. Instead, she saw her deputy get hit with a wooden board and Elena Gilbert rushed out right in front of Liz, stopping short of the gun.

"Elena, what are you doing?" Sheriff Forbes reprimanded.

"You can't kill them, I'm not gonna let you," begged the human. But, after all, she was a human and she could not stand a chance against the deputy that had gotten up from the floor with bravery and shoved her into the cave with his gun raised. Suddenly, there was a gushing wind sound and all the deputies looked at each other.

"What was that?" one asked.

"Who else is with you?" Liz demanded of Elena, who didn't open her mouth at all. The gust of wind came again, and again, and again.

Elena knew exactly who it was, and she still shuddered and it even came as a surprise to her when Caroline attacked the deputy with full-on force, burying her fangs into the deputy's neck. The deputy's partner began to shoot at the vampire blindly, but Caroline was too quick. She used the dead body as a shield and then bit the deputy's partner. Her breathing was ragged and quick from all the blood consumption, but she eventually was able to calm herself. Caroline stepped out into the light to face her mother with a blanket of blood covering her chin.

Liz's face was ghastly as her daughter came into her sights. "Hi, Mom."

Sheriff Forbes sat quietly in a corner, forced to be silent and not harm anyone while she watched all the vampires—including her daughter—try to recover from her attempted homicide. Claire and Damon fed from the deputy's body, since he was still alive enough to have good-tasting, nutritious blood. Quickly, however, the two vampires drained the man of all his blood left and were strong enough to get up and preform normal functions.

Stefan, however, was fighting the urge. Elena was trying to help Stefan as he desperately attempted to accumulate his strength, but nothing except the blood would do that for him; and it was an option he did not have.

Damon crawled over to his weak brother. "You need to drink some deputy blood."

"Oh, no." Stefan groaned. "I'll be fine, it's just going to take a little bit longer."

Caroline disagreed. "Damon's right, you know? If there's ever a time to break your diet—"

Claire rose to her feet, still weak from the vervain injection and wooden bullets that were only starting to heel. She wobbled, but eventually got out, "It's not a good idea. Let him be, it just takes some time."

Just as Claire had, Damon rose to his feet and stumbled from the disadvantage the vervain had on him.

"This is a most _unfortunate _situation. Two deputies dead." He turned around to Liz. "And you. What am I going to do with _you_?" Sheriff Forbes stayed quiet, not giving him an answer. Caroline looked up at her mother shamefully.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Liz looked at her daughter and then tentatively looked away, repulsed at the sight. "Mom? Mom? Please! I…look, I know that we don't get along and that you _hate_ me, but…I'm your daughter and…you'll do this for me, right?" Sheriff Forbes remained looking at the floor. "Mom, please. He _will _kill you."

Finally, Liz looked up at Damon, her eyes full of tears and disgrace. "Then kill me."

"No!" Caroline protested.

"I can't take this," continued Liz. "Kill me now."

Damon sauntered forward and looked Liz right in the eyes, his sadistic side showing. Claire, Stefan, Elena, and Caroline watched in anticipation as Damon whispered, "But you were gonna drag it out so _painfully_."

"Damon…" Claire trailed off, sensing the anger that was about to explode. Sure enough, Damon grabbed the Sheriff by her shoulders and yanked her up.

"No!" screamed Caroline out of fear, "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Damon, don't!" shouted Stefan.

"Damon, please!" cried Elena.

Claire flashed up to Damon and was about to tear him away from Liz when he turned from her and snarled, "_Relax_, guys. No one's killing anybody. You're my friend." He looked back at the dead bodies. "We gotta clean this up."

* * *

Damon took care of the cleanup in the cellar, Caroline took the liberty of getting her mother under control until they could bring her back to the boarding house, Stefan focused on getting his health to par with Elena's help, and Claire set out with the doppelgänger and her friend so she could find Christopher in the dwindling Mystic Falls crowd that covered the clearing of the new park. She was a little concerned to why he didn't show up with Caroline and Elena, but it all made sense once he saw him with her sister just as they made their way right out of the woods.

Naturally, this caused unease.

"What's going on?" Claire asked with Stefan and Elena by her side. Amelia and Christopher turned around immediately and both of them were ready to answer, but didn't when they saw the condition the two vampires were in.

"Claire, what happened?" Christopher asked, rushing up to her with alarm in his voice. She had to admit; it was nice hearing _concern _rather than _disdain. _Amelia looked at Stefan, shaking her head.

"You, too, Stefan? Jesus, you look like you got mauled over by a _truck_!" she exclaimed, stepping forward to examine the bloodstains on his grey hoodie. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Stefan promised her, moving his hand on hers to still the concerned King sister. Elena, who was helping Stefan keep upright, caught sight of it and a wave of jealousy overcame her.

She cursed Damon out in her mind, knowing that it was he who was making her think this way. He was wrong; he had to be. There could be no possible way that Stefan could have feelings for someone else. Then again, there was that shred of doubt that played tricks on Elena and made her think the worst. She hated feeling that way—she didn't want to _not _trust Stefan. She loved him. Love was not about distrust.

"What about you?" Christopher asked, gripping his wife's hands tightly. "Are you okay? Did you feed, are you hu—?"

"Shh," Claire ordered, stopping him mid-sentence. She had a headache and the questions weren't helping. It might've seemed harsh, but Claire had no tolerance when it came to people breathing down her neck at a time of distress. "Relax. I'm fine. I fed and I'm healing. Sheriff Forbes and her deputies ambushed us. Mason told them that we were vampires."

"He did _what_?" the other vampire snapped, his blue eyes blazing red with anger. "Damn it! I _knew _something was wrong…just, Amelia came to me and I got distracted and—"

"What happened?" Stefan intervened. He was more troubled about what she had to tell them since it had obviously caused her to risk exposure of playing for an opposite side than she appeared to root for.

"Well, it doesn't seem so important _now_," the younger King bit, rolling her eyes. "Someone just ambushed you, Stefan, and you can barely stand up. You haven't fed, have—?"

"We're fine. I promise," Claire told her sister curtly, agitated with being interrogated on their physical condition for the umpteenth time. "Why'd you come all the way down here, Amelia? Tell us."

Amelia stared at her sister for a while before finally sighing, admitting defeat. "Fine. I heard Katherine on the phone today talking with someone about getting 'it' at any cost. It wasn't Caroline, it was a man's voice on the other side of the line."

"Did they talk about anything else? Did she say exactly what it was this man needed to get?"

The younger sibling shook her head. "No. It was almost like she was speaking in code. I thought she might've known that I wasn't on her side but…trust me, if Katherine knew that I wasn't faithful to her, I doubt I would still be alive."

After a moment of silence in deep thought, Claire looked up and sighed. "All right, well…we'll figure something out later. Right now, we've got to deal with Liz and Caroline. And Stefan…you need to feed."

"Do you need help getting back to the boarding house—?" Amelia started, but was cut off by Elena, who was urging Stefan in the direction of the crowd.

"I'm handling it. He's fine," the doppelgänger said shortly, causing a spark of defensiveness to rise within Amelia as she watched the teenager help the liming Stefan away. Claire, Christopher, and Amelia were left confounded, staring at the couple that left them.

"What the hell got into her?" Claire muttered, shocked. Nevertheless, the question went unanswered as Claire and Christopher riskily drove back to the boarding house together to figure out the mess between Caroline and her mother.

When Elena brought Stefan to the parking lot so she could drive him back to the boarding house, Stefan had regained enough strength to walk and function on his own, which only created more problems.

"What was that, back there?" Stefan asked, sighing against the trunk of Elena's car as he leaned against it for support. Elena froze. "She was just trying to help." When his girlfriend kept quiet, Stefan sighed. "Come on, Elena, don't—"

"You were lying to me today, weren't you?" Elena said suddenly, changing the subject. Stefan tensed, realizing that he'd been caught. "Claire and Christopher _aren't _fighting, they're pretending. And you're in on it."

Unable to lie, Stefan nodded. "I am. We did it to protect her from Katherine—to protect _everyone _from Katherine."

"Amelia, too?" Elena prompted, the bitterness glimmering through a wall of gentleness. The vampire exhaled, admitting guilt. "So you could trust her, but you couldn't trust me."

"No, Elena, this wasn't about _trust. _We needed to keep it a secret so that it seemed more _believable_—"

"It doesn't matter, Stefan," she cut him off briskly, holding up her hand. Stefan fell silent and Elena dropped her hand after a while and whispered, "You should've…told me."

It was a long time before Stefan admitted, "I know. And I'm sorry. But I _promise _you, Amelia's on our side. She won't hurt anyone, she's just trying to help."

"I know." Elena stepped forward, trying to understand where her vampire boyfriend was coming from. But the thought was eating her alive, and Damon's words burned into her memory. She mentally cursed Stefan's elder brother for making this a big deal, but she was left with no choice but to blurt out, "I just…I need to ask you something."

Stefan hesitated, but did not say anything. Elena continued after a moment, trying to come up with the best way she could put the sentence without sounding like a jealous monster. She continued, "This isn't about Damon, but he's been making some points to me lately. Telling me that I need to protect myself because of Amelia coming back."

The younger Salvatore snorted. "Amelia won't _hurt _you, Elena—"

"That's not what I meant." The two stood in silence before Elena finally purged, "Stefan, do you still have…_feelings _for her or something?"

The vampire paused. "W-Why would you ask me that?"

"That wasn't an answer," said a deeply disappointed and stubborn Elena. She crossed her arms defensively as Stefan straightened and tried to come out with a response.

"Elena, I…" he trailed off, searching for the right words to say. But what could he tell her? A lie? The truth, maybe? Did he even know the truth? The answer was simple. He admitted defeat. "I don't…I don't know."

Elena's breath shook as she received the confirmation of her doubtful thoughts. Stefan could tell she was biting back words, but he quickly tried to help. "But that doesn't mean I don't love you. I just never thought she'd come back—"

"Is that supposed to be an excuse? You don't know if you love her because you never had to think about it before?" Elena snorted. Stefan remained quiet. "Well, I'm asking you now, Stefan, so you're gonna have to think about it."

"Elena, she was a really big part of my life," he tried to explain. "I grew up with her. Claire was friends with Damon and I was friends with Amelia until she ran away and everything changed. I can't just…forget all of that, even if I tried."

"It's a simple question, Stefan," the girl said softly. "It's either a yes or a no."

And so they stood, in utter silence, when Stefan could not physically come up with an answer to satisfy the both of them. This did not mean that Stefan didn't love Elena—he knew he did. Likewise, she knew it too. But she was not asking him if he loved _her, _she was asking him if he loved _Amelia. _And that question did not receive an answer, so she assumed it was a yes.

"I'm gonna go home," said Elena quietly, embarrassed that she had asked a question that had earned no correct answer. "Tell Caroline I'll…call her later."

Stefan didn't stop her as the teenager climbed into her car and left the parking lot, deserting him. He was still weak, but he was strong enough to get home by himself. However, that turned out not to be necessary.

"I didn't mean to cause a problem." Stefan looked to his side to find Amelia walking out of the darkness, her hands awkwardly in her jean pockets with her shoulders tense and stiff. He sighed, exhausted. She came up to face him, and the two stared quietly. "You should've just told her the truth."

Stefan took in a breath. "I did, Amelia."

"Stefan, that was over a _century _ago," she breathed out, practically laughing. "There's no way you could still have any feelings for me at _all_." His silence was defining, giving much more than any amount of words ever could. Amelia quickly came to the realization of what his silence meant, and she sucked in a sharp breath. "Okay…well, that got awkward fast."

"I've got to get home," Stefan said abruptly, changing the subject. He turned to walk away, but Amelia stopped him.

"Stefan…" she trailed off, halting him. He turned back at her and she took out an excessive breath and jerked her head back. "Come with me. I'll drive you back."

"Amelia, I can get home on my own. I'm fi—"

"I know you're fine." She cut him off and started to back up towards her car on the other side of the lot. "But I can still give you a ride. Let's go."

He thought about disobeying her, but he'd already screwed up enough in the entire span of one day. So what harm could a ride home do?

* * *

"Hey. Sorry that…took forever," Caroline apologized to Claire as she stepped through the threshold of the Salvatore house with a suitcase in her hand. Claire held the door open for the young vampire. "I just didn't know how long my mom was going to be here."

"It'll take three days tops for the vervain to leave her system," Claire responded helpfully. "If we're lucky, it'll be sooner."

From the stairs behind them, Stefan came down and joined the two blondes in the foyer. Things had died down from earlier; Amelia had given Christopher a ride back to the King residence and things had been quieter for the most part. Claire had learned from Stefan about his fight with Elena, and all she could do was try to remain neutral and not think about how weird it was for her sister/not-sister to be dating her best friend. She hoped it would never come to that, but…as Damon had quipped, she remembered Stefan and Amelia's hapless crushes on each other.

"Hey," Caroline greeted Stefan, earning the same response from him. The three began to move down to the cellar where Sheriff Forbes was being kept. "Get some bunny in you?"

Stefan scoffed. "Yeah. I'm feeling much better, thank you."

Down the basement, Damon watched as Liz painstakingly conversed with her co-worker on the phone. "A stomach bug. Yeah, it came on fast. I'll definitely be out tomorrow," lied Liz.

Behind her, Damon clicked his tongue in disagreement. The sheriff turned around at him and expressed a look of distaste before turning around and amending her statement.

"…or longer—I'll text you." The vampire gave a triumphant smile. "Yeah. Goodnight."

The human ended the call and turned around, handing the phone back to Damon. He smiled at her. "Thank you." Liz brushed past him and walked over to the small bed in the corner of her temporarily cell. "It's not exactly The Ritz, but it's secure. I brought you a good thread count. And once the vervain's worked its way out of your system, I will compel you, you will forget _everything, _and you'll be a free woman."

"Keep Caroline away from me, please. I don't want to see her." Not only did Damon hear the exclaim from the distraught mother, but Caroline, herself, heard the words as she came downstairs with her friends and the suitcase in her hand. She stopped short just before entering the cell hearing the spiteful claim.

Damon eyed Caroline at the threshold and defended her, "She's your daughter, Liz."

"Not anymore," Liz disagreed. "My daughter's gone."

"You have no idea how wrong you are about that."

The hurt Caroline immediately stormed off, fighting off her tears before she could get away from the hovering nature of her new vampire friends. Stefan and Claire watched as she stormed off, and Stefan ultimately decided to go after her. Claire thought it'd be best to go after the teenagers, but instead, she turned around the threshold and walked into the cell to face Liz and Damon. Her presence silenced things for a while, but Claire eyed Liz on the cot.

She spoke softly. "You should give her a chance. She didn't choose this. None of us did."

"She attacked my deputies," Liz argued. "She's every bit a monster as the two of you."

"Your deputies were trying to _murder _us." The blonde's voice was so harsh, it nearly made Liz flinch. The two locked eyes. "_You _were trying to murder us, Liz. Talk about the pot calling the kettle—"

"Claire," Damon warned her, murmuring under his breath. The request caused her to tear eye contact with the sheriff and she glanced up to Damon, who was silently hinting for her to leave. Sighing out of frustration, Claire turned on her heel and left the cellar with one long, distasteful look towards Liz, who was acting out of turn on this one. Claire didn't like what she was, but she had a right to—it was her own personal hell at times. For humans, they had no right to hate their species. They didn't know a hardship until they've lived to see a century go by.

When Claire moved to head upstairs and check on Caroline, she stopped short when she saw Stefan hovering over the cooler of blood in the cellar, holding a package in his hand and torturing himself with its presence. Claire blurred over to him and snatched the blood out of his hand, misleading a relapse.

"Oh, no you don't," Claire warned him, making sure the blood was out of reach. "You're _not_ doing this to me today. I don't have enough energy for you to relapse again, got it?"

"I wasn't gonna relapse," said Stefan, eyeing the blood with confusion. "Amelia said something to me in the car when she was driving me home. She told me that Katherine built up a tolerance to vervain and suggested that I could do the same…with blood. To build my strength."

Claire snorted. "My sister only knows the _good _you. Not the one who drives himself insane over human blood."

"But think about it," Stefan urged, causing her to refocus all of her attention into Stefan's eyes. "I almost _died _tonight, Claire. Because I was too weak."

"We _all _almost died!" she snapped, her eyes wide. "That isn't an excuse to go trying new things when we're at the breaking point right now! Stefan, this isn't a good _time _for me to worry about you falling off the wagon—"

"Now is the perfect time, Claire. Because I told you I would find a way to stop Katherine," he said harshly. "This is it. This is the only way because she's _stronger _than me. And unless that changes, I can't help protect you from her."

"I don't _need _protection," the vampire hissed through her teeth, tired of hearing the statement, whether in the midst of a fake argument or a real one. "You all seem to forget that I'm a vampire—that I can protect _myself. _Katherine can come for me all she wants, I'll be waiting with a stake in my hand. She won't get away with killing me twice."

It was a bold statement, but one that Stefan knew was not deceitful. He wanted to retort, but she was right. But he wasn't willing to give up so easily. Instead, he nodded in agreement. "Fine. Fine, Claire; you don't need protection. But here's the thing: you have been there for me through everything. It's time I'm here to help you for once."

"You help me enough, Stefan," she complained, shaking her head. "If you absolutely _want _to, we can try it one day. I can help you through it but _not right now. _Not with everything going on—"

"I _have_ to do this, Claire," he urged, only earning a groan of displeasure from her. In an instant, he caught her off guard and snatched the blood from her hand. Claire gasped at the sudden movement, but she was too shocked that he would make such a move like that to steal the blood back. Before walking away, Stefan added, "With or without your help."

Her hands were clenched into fists when Stefan stormed out of the basement and upstairs. She half expected for Damon to come out and shove it in her face that she and Stefan were having one of their rare, heated friend arguments that had only occurred a few times every decade. Instead, she heard no gloating and was allowed upstairs without the cocky grin of the elder Salvatore. Not really feeling in the mood to be her normal self, she walked into the parlor where Caroline sat and sighed.

"You need a ride home?" asked the older vampire, crossing her arms. Caroline sniffled and shook her head, trying to subdue the tears.

"I can't go home," complained Caroline. Claire frowned.

"Your mom will be fine. I'll keep an eye out for her—"

"It's not that." Caroline dismissed the thought instantly, bowing her head in shame. Claire straightened and watched as the younger vampire took a moment before sniffling again and looking up to meet her gaze. "I can't go home because I'm _scared."_

Instantly, Claire stepped forward with a worried look on her face. "Caroline, why are you scared?" She said nothing. The King sat down on the coffee table in front of the vampire her blood sired. "Hey. Talk to me."

Caroline shook with fear and anxiety until she finally blurted out, "Katherine's gonna be there. And she's gonna want me to tell her…_everything_ that happened today." Caroline watched as a look of realization crossed her sire's features. "She told me I had to spy on you and report back to her."

"I know," the female vampire confessed, looking up to capture Caroline's green eyes as they widened with bewilderment. "Caroline, one thing that you should know about me is that I can spot bullshit from a mile away. And…well, you were _full _of bullshit when you tried to keep me away from Christopher."

Caroline sobbed, as if she'd been scolded. Claire leaned forward on her knees and softly reached out to gently touch Caroline's arm. "But listen to me; I don't blame you for what you've done. Because…knowing Katherine…she threatened someone." The other vampire almost broke out in tears, confirming Claire's belief. "Who was it, Caroline?"

"Matt." The teenager sobbed harder. "She threatened Matt. And I am _so _scared of her, Claire. I am…_so _scared of her."

"Well, you should be, Caroline," agreed Claire with a snort. Caroline tried to calm her sobs. "_I _should be scared of her—we all should. Katherine killed me; she's not empty on her threats. That much I know."

"Why is she doing this? What does she want?"

"Katherine…_feeds _on drama. Her fuel is causing pain to others because she's unhappy with herself." The words were crucial to say, crucial to hear, but true. Claire bit her lip. "And…well, we don't know what she wants. Not yet, anyway. But we _will _find out." Claire squeezed Caroline's hand reassuringly and nodded. "Trust me. We're going to figure this out—all of us. She's not going to win this time. Okay?"

Claire waited for the other vampire to agree, and eventually Caroline nodded weakly and sobbed again, obviously afraid of what Katherine would do to her and what would come of her telling the truth. Despite the role Caroline played in the break-up between her and her husband, Claire knew that it wasn't her fault, what had happened. She was an unfortunate pawn in Katherine's game.

The new vampire had fallen asleep shortly after their heart-to-heart. The glowing embers of the fire crackled beside her and Claire sighed, exhausted. She moved to the staircase to resign to bed, but Damon cut her off as she tried to exit the parlor. She made a disgruntled sound of disapproval, but then looked back to make sure that Caroline was still asleep. To her pleasure, she was.

"Caroline's asleep," Claire whispered to the brother as she brushed past him, but kept her steps slow so she could talk with Damon, who obviously came to her for a reason. "I would've moved her to one of the beds upstairs, but she was out before I could suggest it."

"I heard," Damon agreed. "And you?"

They locked eyes, but Claire could see something in Damon's that made her pause and study him. There was something on his mind—she could tell. She just really couldn't care.

"I'm going to my own bed. Goodnight." She moved to walk up to the staircase, but Damon's fingers came around her arm and he softly spun her around to face him.

"Hey," he said softly, his voice quiet so only the two of them could hear. She shifted and noticed as he didn't release his hand from her arm. He didn't have a pressure on his hold and it wasn't hurtful, it was gentler than she would've thought. He could see the look of irritation on her face, but he barreled through it regardless. "Stefan didn't drink the blood, if you were curious. But he needs to."

"Damon, I don't want to have this discussion with you," Claire whispered, finding herself calmer than she'd ever been with Damon. Maybe it had something to do with the unconscious Caroline on the parlor couch. "You've said it for years. I _know _he can function on the blood if he was taught correctly, but now's not the best time for us to be doing this. It has to wait."

"I know you _hate _to admit this, Clarissa, but you have people who care about whether you live or die," he murmured, his eyes roaming across her features. Claire stiffened. "People who don't want to lose you—especially not to Katherine. Stefan is one of those people. He wants to be strong enough to help."

Sensing her discomfort, Damon let go of her arm and she returned it to her side, avoiding his uncomfortable gaze. He had a point, she realized; but it still made no sense to her. What was the point in Damon, Stefan, Christopher, and anyone else risking their own lives for a battle that was so petty it was almost laughable? If she so desired, Claire believed—completely—that she could handle Katherine Pierce on her own. Not without fear, but she would still be able to defeat her.

She'd be wrong, of course.

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he went off the rails again," Claire whispered, trying to make Damon understand where she was coming from. "He's fought so hard to get to where he is today, to fight the monster he thinks he is."

"Help him," Damon suggested, for once giving thoughtful insight. "Trust me, you _can_ help him get through it. I've seen you do it before."

She was struggling with words—she'd never had a thoughtful, insightful conversation with Damon about Stefan before. Surprisingly, Damon had a point to his words that she understood. It swayed her, but she was still on the fence about how she felt with Damon.

"W-Why are you being so nice to me?" she stuttered, a little confused. Damon's expression remained blank as she chuckled in disbelief. "I hate you. You hate me. We don't talk about Stefan. Don't you remember how that works?"

For a while, he was silent. Then, he finally opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing else except, "Night, Claire," and walked off to the staircase to go up to his own bedroom, leaving her alone to think about their conversation. She should've been wrapped up as to why he didn't answer her question, but all she could think about was the struggling Stefan. She'd abandoned him in his time of need for advice and help—what kind of a friend would do that?

Stefan was sitting in the study when he watched Claire enter the room, emptying a dose of blood from a blood bag into a crystal glass with a sigh. He straightened, confused, and watched in wonder as she made her way over to him and sat down on the couch. Her eyes met his.

"Tell me, honestly," she urged. "Do you believe that you can control it?"

He stared at her and tried to come up with an answer. Finally, he sighed. "I don't know. But if I don't try…"

"I get it." Claire stopped him, capturing his attention after he'd deferred it. "Stefan, I…_love _you. You're my best friend and…all the family that I've had for an entire century. We've been through everything together and I _get _it. I'm just so used to denying you human blood because of what Lexi taught you."

She paused and reached forward to grab the small glass that she'd poured as she walked into the room. Stefan eyed it, catching the level line of the blood. It was only one fourth of the cup's full capacity, but just enough. Claire exhaled.

"But now it's time to try something different." She gave him a sad smile. "And I'm going to help you."

The friends sat in silence, taking in the seriousness of the situation. Stefan eyed the glass of blood in her hand, and she held it out for him to take with confidence. Stefan reached forward after a hesitation and grabbed the cup from her hand, fully aware of her observing gaze. He took in a deep breath and then drank, telling himself to fight the urge to grab the blood bag and drink more. When he finished the blood, the only thing that kept him from ripping apart every human life he came across was the anchor of his best friend.

Claire grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. "Breathe," she instructed him, watching as the veins kept their hold on Stefan's face. "I'm right here, Stefan. You can do this."

And over the next few, painful seconds, the veins started to disappear as Stefan took in a deep breath, in and out. Claire smiled triumphantly, and when Stefan saw the smile of approval from his best friend, he smiled. The two were smiling at each other, realizing that it had worked. He didn't throw her and rip apart the blood bag. He didn't lose control.

* * *

Mason Lockwood kept his eye sharp for any unwanted visitors that dared to roam around at the Lockwood property in this time of night. Way deep in the woods, he made his way up to a parked car with its headlights shining bright, attracting attention to it. Without a hesitation, he opened the door of the nice, modern car and climbed inside to sit next to his vampire companion.

Katherine turned her head and grumbled, "I've been waiting."

Mason looked at her for a moment before leaning forward, preparing to kiss her. Katherine stopped him, holding up her hand in front of his face. "Ah! What was that _stunt_ today that you pulled with Claire King and Damon and Stefan Salvatore?"

Mason knotted his eyebrows. "I thought you'd be happy about that."

"I told you to stay _away _from them," she chastised.

"Why do you even care?"

"I don't want you to get distracted. I need you to find the moonstone," Katherine pushed. The wolf stared at her for a while, and Katherine studied his face. A smile appeared, and she soon realized what it meant. "You got it!"

"I got it," he agreed.

The vampire chuckled and shook her head incredulously before leaning forward to bring her lips to Mason's in a passionate, relentless kiss.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please!**

* * *

**NicoleR85: **Thanks for reviewing!

**RHatch89: **Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **That's probably what's going on in the back of everyone's minds but...yeah, sadly that won't happen for a while.

**SavageKill: **No, Christopher isn't working with Katherine. I don't know how I worded it to make you think that way. Basically, the whole gist of it is that Christopher was turned into a vampire by Katherine because she planned to kill Claire in the tomb and take Christopher for herself, but her plan totally backfired because Emily never brought Claire into the tomb in the first place and Christopher's parents found out that he was a vampire and they turned him into the mob, who then brought him to the church to burn. Hope that clears it up. Thanks for reviewing!

**grapejuice101: **Wow! That's high praise! Thanks so much! Here's the update...I'm going to try to work on 2x06 ASAP.

**bigdloveztexaz: **Thanks for reviewing!

**GetTraught: **Your review made me smile :) Yeah, I love Christopher as well, but since this is a Damon/OC I get where all the hate comes from. Stefan and Amelia are cute, aren't they? That's what I was going for. Elena and Stefan need to go on a little break, especially since Katherine's not really getting in between them like she normally does. Amelia and Katherine are close because of both reasons, actually; Katherine feels empathetic towards her because of the child, but Amelia feels almost obligated to her because Katherine saved her at such a low point in her life. Of course, when she found out about Katherine having it out for Claire, she sort of realized that Katherine's not the idealistic role model. As for the rest of your questions about Amelia's baby, I cannot answer them...and will not be answering them for a long time. For right now, all that's said about the child is that she was given away and that Amelia is positive she has died. I completely agree with you about Claire going back and forth, because that's exactly what I wanted her to do. She's not perfect, nor as hardheaded as she thinks she is or wants other people to think she is. But she's also not the weakling Elena, who keeps telling herself that she's not hurting anyone when she really is. The point was that Claire knew exactly what she was doing and did it by her own accord, but she needed to come to a conclusion that she wanted to keep her marriage alive. Which, of course, kind of sparked some resentment in Damon. Anyways, thanks for the lovely review!

**Guest: **You know, that's an awesome question. One I don't really have an answer for. Thanks for the review! :)

**Anna.B: **Eh...we'll see about that. The next chapter should have an interesting reaction from everyone that I'm dying to see. "Loved" isn't really the word to use when it comes to Claire but we'll actually see more of Christopher's breaking point in 2x06. I know, telling Amelia wasn't a good decision on Stefan's part, but he was feeling awkward and he thought it was best to tell Amelia since Claire wasn't around. Amelia and Claire didn't really have a moment alone in this chapter, but we'll see their reflection on it in the next. Season 3 is a long ways away but...I already have plans and Klaus and Claire are a part of them. However, this won't be like my other Damon/OC/Klaus triangle, I'm making it as different as I can. Thanks for reviewing!

**Bella Lugosi: **Thanks! Haha Christopher is a really sweet dude, but...I don't know, don't get too comfortable. It's time for a change. That sounded way more cynical than I wanted it to be...

**annie: **I'm trying really hard to write chapters faster but my English teacher decided to bombard me with a shitload of work to do and books to read...plus, I'm not gonna lie, I've been rewatching The 100 over and over again for the past week now. But I promise that I'll try! I like your idea about Jenna's place in the sacrifice, but I have something else in mind that I've been planning for since the beginning of Season 2. Again, I'll try to make my updates more frequent. Thanks for reviewing!


	20. Plan B

**Hello, everyone! I'm back, finally. After three months of radio silence, here I am. I apologize, but I have been going through a lot of stuff lately. My best friend decided to ditch me and it's been hard on top of finals, but needless to say, I found other friends and I'm determined not to stress about anything because I've realized that it's just not worth it. With 2015 here, I've decided to turn over a new leaf and really try harder and be more involved. That said, I needed a little time away but now I'm back and I am excited to continue this story as well as my others while also adding some new stories on my profile. **

**The next two episodes have been pre-written and will be published as usual, Wednesdays at 5PM EST. Hopefully I can get a little further ahead in the next two weeks so you all won't have to wait for a long time again. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Plan B**

"If I had known that the key to great sex is a divorce, I would've broken it off ages ago." Claire sighed as she swung her legs off of the sizeable bed in one of the more luxurious rooms in the King household that was not neglected upkeep. She began to slip on her clothes while Christopher relaxed in his temporary bed with his arms behind his head, as blissful as she was.

He laughed. "I don't think it's the divorce, Claire."

Unknowst to him, she grinned widely while she dressed. "I'll give you that."

"You're skipping out on me already?"

"Well, I have to." She got up and turned around while bending down to get the heel that somehow managed to fly all the way to the connecting bathroom's door. "We don't know if Katherine has anyone else watching us. We're already taking a risk with my sister. Or…well…"

Claire trailed off, unable to finish her train of thought when she realized: what, exactly, _was _her sister? Obviously not blood-related to her. But were they still going to act like they were? Of course, Claire loved her sister like she's always loved her, but the new information that Amelia was not her sister was a topic they'd never gotten to discuss. With all that was happening, she was afraid they never would.

"A risk?" Christopher repeated, sitting up straight. "What do you mean?"

"That's not what I meant." Claire shook her head, amending her statement. She tried to slip on her heel, but for some reason, she was having trouble getting the balance. "I'm not saying we can't trust her. We can trust her—of course we can, she's my _sister_! But it's been a _really _long time. I only knew her as a little girl and…well, now she's seventeen and she's a vampire. I don't really know what to expect."

While she talked, Claire tried desperately to get her shoe on, but she was failing miserably. Eventually, she just settled upon pulling both heels into her arm and going barefoot, deciding that it didn't matter. She had to get back to the boarding house and change, anyway. She'd already risked too much spending the night at the King mansion with her husband.

Christopher sighed. "You should really talk with her, Claire."

The vampire nodded slowly. "I…know I should. And I will. Soon." She began to move towards the door, but then stopped for a moment. Realizing she was being terribly inconsiderate and hasty, she turned around and gave her husband a small smile. "I'm _really _out of practice with this whole…race in the morning thing. I usually…"

Claire stopped, realizing that it was _not _time to rehash her morning-after routine. She could see that Christopher caught on to the end of her sentence, but he brushed past it, deciding to not dwell on it.

"Yes, you do seem more of the type to sneak out in the middle of the night. I'm pleasantly surprised you stayed until morning."

"I'm sorry," she apologized, frowning before walking over to his side of the bed. He just smiled and watched as she hesitantly sat down on the edge, dropping her shoes for a moment to sigh heavily. "Are you going to the Lockwood mansion today?"

"Mrs. Lockwood wouldn't take no for an answer."

"I figured she wouldn't. I don't think it's a good idea, but…" Claire rolled her eyes. "We just have to make sure we've got this under control. All the fights we have are _fake._"

"Of course they are," he agreed, leaning forward to move a wild golden strand off her cheek. "We're adults. We can handle this."

"I know we can." She paused, trying to search for the right way to approach the subject she wanted to talk about—the subject that scared her more than anything else in the world. He waited patiently for her to finally come up with the words to say. "I just want you to promise me something."

"Promise?" he repeated sarcastically. "Who would _do_ such a thing?" While Claire gave him a frown, unamused, he chuckled at her and finally smiled. "Go ahead, Claire."

"You can't…fall in love with her," she ordered calmly, finding the courage to say the words she'd been fretting over for the last few days. Immediately upon this topic, Christopher's boyish smile dropped. "Katherine is going to try to do a lot of things to get you to turn on me. She's going to try to use my past against you…tell you things that you might not want to know. And in the process, she's going to try to get you to fall in love with her, whether she truly loves you or not. Her endgame isn't to find happiness, it's to _ruin_ mine."

Things were silent—quite deafeningly—for a very long time after Claire spoke these words much like a confession. Christopher stared at her for a period of time, trying to figure out her meaning behind the words. Finally, without warning, he leaned forward and crashed his lips onto hers and just kissed her, completely bypassing the question. But, in itself, the kiss _was _an answer. It was an affirmative one.

When Christopher finally pulled away from his wife, he didn't lean back. He kept his face close to hers and let his hand cup the side of her face.

"You don't ever have to worry about me falling in love with Katherine Pierce," he promised her, resisting the subconscious urge to laugh. Seeing Claire so stressed about it was somewhat reassuring, in a terrible sense. "The bitch _killed_ me."

Tried as she might, Claire couldn't stop the inevitable burst of laughter that escaped from her mouth after hearing the word "bitch" escape from Christopher's mouth. He watched her and laughed himself, acknowledging the way she rocked back and forth in wholehearted amusement.

"What?" he asked innocently, and though it seemed odd of her to laugh at him cursing, he knew it was probably the case. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Claire leaned forward and kissed him quickly. "Nothing. I'm…I'm just gonna go now."

"Bye," Christopher agreed, and just observed as she raced out of her family's home without any shoes on her feet. Claire exited the King residence, closing the door carefully. As she did, she temporarily forgot about her heightened senses and was, amazingly, frightened by a voice.

"Claire?"

Stiffening, the blonde vampire jolted and turned to where the voice came from, only to see Jenna Sommers lean over on her knees, sweating from what looked like an early morning jog. The young aunt had her dirty blonde hair away from her face to prevent the sweat from hindering her lively locks. Claire put her hand on her chest and recovered from one of the few times she was ever frightened by someone, much less a human.

"Jenna," she breathed in relief. She gulped and confoundedly asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I was just out for a jog," Jenna confessed, though it was clearly obvious. Claire nodded eventually, but Jenna spoke again, this time as the confused one. "What are _you _doing here?"

Quickly, the vampire scrambled for a lie. "Oh, just…checking out Uncle Jack's place here. It's really something." A chuckle escaped her lips, but she didn't break a sweat. Lying came as natural to her as feeding did.

"Oh, really?" Jenna proposed, arching an eyebrow. She glanced over Claire from head to toe and finally pointed at her chest. "You might want to fix that."

Bewildered, Claire looked down to see what Jenna was talking about—then she realized. In her haste, she had idiotically missed a button on her shirt, causing her lingerie to inevitably be exposed to whomever looked her way. Hardly anything embarrassed her, but Claire had to admit that it was slightly humiliating. She looked up at Jenna, who was suppressing a smile, and realized quickly that she could potentially salvage the situation.

"I…uh…slept here last night and I have to get the Lockwood mansion to help with the masquerade ball setup. In a bit of a rush," she explained.

Jenna bit down on her lip and nodded slowly. "Uh huh. Well, anyway, I'm glad I caught you. I'm cooking dinner tonight and Ric will be there. You and Christopher should join us."

Claire cleared her throat and tried to get into the mindset of the divorced woman she'd indefinitely have to pretend to be. "Oh…you know, _I'd _love to, but Christopher and I are actually going through something right now. We decided to…separate for a while. It's not looking too good."

"Wow. Really?" Claire nodded as Jenna held back a smile. "Because, you know, I could've _sworn _I saw someone move their stuff in here yesterday." The honey-haired woman pointed back to the King house and Claire realized just what she meant. "And I'm, uh, almost positive it was Christopher."

Immediately, Claire realized that she had been caught red-handed. She turned back to the house, trying to come up with another lie that could get her out of this mess; but hearing and seeing the caught look on Claire's face, Jenna smiled.

"You know what?" she proposed, putting in an earbud she ripped out. Claire looked over at her and watched as Jenna grabbed her other earbud and, before putting it in, whispered subtly, "I'm sure I was just imagining things. I'll see you tonight, then."

And Jenna jogged away, leaving Claire in an awed and somewhat grateful state.

* * *

"This is a problem," Stefan admitted sadly as he and Claire stood behind the soon-to-be full bar on the Lockwood lawn for the masquerade party coming up. Claire flipped the glasses from the crate upright and set them down before her with a shrug.

"I don't see what the big deal is. So Jenna knows? What harm could it really do?" she retorted. Stefan sighed.

"A lot. If this gets out in any way, shape, or form, Katherine _will _come after you and you know that."

"And I _promise _that you can be the one to pour the hot water on the wicked witch's head," she teased. Stefan frowned at her.

"Why can't you _ever _take things seriously?"

This only made Claire grimace at him, losing her amusement because Stefan was forcing it out of her. "I _do _take this seriously, Stefan. You wanted me to 'divorce' Christopher, I did. You wanted me to fight with him, I did. You wanted me to help curve you on your cravings, I am. But this all just seems futile. We're not making any progress in finding and killing Katherine, we're just…setting up champagne glasses for Carol Lockwood."

"Damon's handling it," Stefan promised, moving the glasses in his crate. Claire laughed.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"Yes, it's supposed to make you feel a _whole _lot better," he agreed, pausing to look at his vampire friend for a moment. Claire crossed her arms and waited for further explanation. "Despite the fact that you're furious with him, he doesn't want you to get hurt. Neither do I. Plus, he's looking for his own vengeance at Katherine."

She sighed. "Well, how about I compromise? He can deal with the big bad wolf at Grandma's while we protect the citizens of good ol' Oz from the green-eyed monster."

Stefan chuckled. "I think you're overusing the allusions there, Claire."

She frowned, unimpressed. "Well, I happen to think they were perfectly timed, thank you." She swiped the crate in his hands and went to unpacking them while Stefan sighed and went to grab another crate of his own. When he came back to pull the glasses out, Claire snuck a glance at him and finally asked the question that she'd been itching to ask all morning. "So…how are you?"

The veiled attempt at chopping down Stefan's built-in wall of solitude was a bust. He let out a heavy exhale. "Claire, I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh, come on! Of course you want to talk about it!" she protested exhaustedly. "You and Elena broke up because you couldn't tell her that you don't have feelings for Amelia. That's one serious situation that you've avoided talking about."

"Because…" Stefan trailed off, shrugging. "There's nothing to say."

"How about 'Claire, I think I might be in love with your sister'? Ever thought of that one?" Claire propositioned. Stefan let out a frustrated sigh.

"But I don't _know_ if I'm in love with her, Claire. I don't know anything right now, I just…" He paused. "I need time to think about things."

A long silence passed before Claire finally blurted out, "Well, Elena's devastated. Or, well, she's disappointed, I think. I haven't talked to Amelia yet but I'm sure she's probably going to ignore it until you say something. That is, if I know her at all anymore."

"She's still the same," Stefan assured her. "She's just a vampire now. She's older, too, obviously. And…she's not your sister. But trust me, she's the same."

"Oh, and you would know." Claire turned at him with narrowed eyes. "Because you spent an entire day with her whereupon you spilled the beans about our family. You know, we never really discussed that."

"I…thought she deserved to know," Stefan defended himself. Claire shook her head, but she wasn't angry. In fact, it saved her of an awkward conversation. Still, she was disappointed that she never got to tell her sister that they actually _weren't _blood-related. "But you're right. It wasn't my place."

"It could be your place," Claire pointed out as she glanced up at him with a playful smirk. "If you _are, _in fact, in love with her."

Stefan laughed and shook his head, refusing to answer. Claire bumped his shoulder as they began to unwrap more glasses, but before they could move onto another subject, Mason Lockwood appeared with another crate just in front of their tent. Claire and Stefan both caught his gaze, and the wolf definitely looked startled. However, he didn't break a sweat. Instead, he smiled politely.

"Hey, Stefan. Claire."

"Hey, Mason," Stefan said nonchalantly, watching as Mason set down the crate with his back turned. Claire and Stefan shared a silent look at each other just as Mason turned around nervously.

"Wasn't expecting you two here," he admitted. "Or anywhere."

"You could say we were distracted," Claire shot, giving the wolf a curt smile. "But everything's under control now. We're fine, thanks for asking."

Finished with beating around the bush, Mason stepped forward and hushed, "What did you do to Sheriff Forbes?"

"Oh, she's fine, too," Stefan informed him. "But from now on, you'll have to do your own dirty work."

"Not a problem." Mason smiled.

"We're sure it won't be." Claire waved at him innocently as the Lockwood began to back away from the bar to get out of the crossfire. In the haste, he accidentally collided with Bonnie. From an oblivious human's perspective, it seemed like it was just an accidental bump. But Stefan and Claire could see clearly from Bonnie's face that there was something she felt that put her under distress.

"What's the matter?" Stefan asked as the two vampires approached the witch with concern and intrigue. "Are you okay?"

"When I touched him, I saw something," Bonnie confessed.

"What do you mean, like a vision?"

"I saw Elena."

"You saw…Elena?"

"He was kissing her," Bonnie agreed, confused herself. Stefan stood with his arms crossed, wondering to himself if his ex-girlfriend was capable of such a thing. But he knew Elena, and he knew that she wouldn't just go around kissing Mason Lockwood, of all people.

However, Claire scoffed from behind him. "Elena? Kissing Mason Lockwood? Jesus, she bounces back fast. Who would've thought?"

"No," Stefan blurted out, shaking his head. "No. Elena wouldn't kiss…" And then it dawned on him, and poetically he looked off at the morning glow of the sun and sighed. "You didn't see Elena, you saw…_Katherine_."

* * *

Elena watched from inside the Lockwood mansion as Stefan, Bonnie, and Claire were gathered together discussing something that looked urgent and important. She couldn't help feeling out of the loop, like there was something going on that she didn't know about. She debated, for just a moment, about going out to find out what was going on, but she remembered that she and Stefan were no longer together. That _she _had been the one to call it off and that _he _couldn't tell her whether or not he had feelings for Amelia King.

Christopher looked up at the distressed human, noticing that she stopped sorting the masks Carol had asked them to sort into boxes for the party. Concerned, he raised an eyebrow.

"Is everything okay?"

Elena was brought back to reality by his question, earning her to look at him and sigh. "Um…yeah. Everything's fine."

As she went back to sorting the masks, Christopher straightened and frowned at her, disbelieving. "Now we both know that's not true." She peeked up at him. "It's okay, Elena. I know about what happened with Stefan."

Elena let out a frustrated sigh. "I didn't know it was yesterday's gossip," she said, irritated. Christopher waited for her to calm down and finally say, "Has Claire said anything?"

"Just that you two broke up," he admitted quietly. "And that it had something to do with Amelia. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out."

"I just don't know what to do," admitted the human. "I've tried to ignore it, but I can't. And as much as I would love to blame Damon for being crazy, I can't help but think that he's right. Especially since he knew Stefan and Amelia as humans."

The vampire before her nodded. "Damon has a habit of telling people the truth when they don't want to hear it."

Elena scoffed. "Yeah. I know."

Seeing her sorrow, Christopher studied her for a moment, trying to think of the right words to say. He could see the look of disappointment and despair on her face, no matter how hard Elena tried to hide it from him. He could tell that she was trying to be tough, but it wasn't working out. Finally, he came up with the words he thought would make her feel better.

"No matter if this works out or not," Christopher started, gaining Elena's undivided attention, "this won't make you sad forever. You'll find someone else, Elena."

The two were silent for a very long time until Elena scoffed, taken back by his words. "That's…almost exactly what Stefan said to me once. About my parents."

Christopher smiled. "Well, at least we know he gives great advice."

There was a moment of light laughter, but before Elena could overthink things (as if she hadn't already been enough) Damon came up behind her and nearly scared her half to death. She jumped and recovered with a gasp.

"Damon, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Looking for my baby bro," he quipped with a sigh. "Speaking of, would you tell yours to stop following me around?"

"What's going on?"

"Ask eager beaver." Without anything else, Damon took off in the opposite direction as soon as he spotted Stefan outside with Claire and Bonnie. When Jeremy came trotting in after Damon, Elena caught his attention.

"Jeremy, what is he making you do?"

Jeremy sighed, exhausted with his elder sister's condescending attitude. "He's not making me do anything. Damon and I—"

"Ah!" Elena stopped him instantly. "No way. No, no, no, no. There is no _Damon and you_. There's Damon and whoever Damon's using. And those people, they end up dead. Whatever's going on, Jeremy, I want you to stay out of it."

The younger Gilbert shook his head. "I don't really care what you want, Elena. It's because of you that I'm in this mess in the first place so, sorry, you don't really get to tell me what I'm gonna do."

Taking off in Damon's footsteps, Jeremy turned on his heel and walked out. A frustrated and worried Elena turned back to Christopher, who was standing behind her witnessing the entire conversation. When she looked up at him and the two locked eyes, Christopher sighed and put down his mask.

"Don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for him."

"Thank you," Elena said graciously, and was once again left by someone else to go after Damon.

* * *

"Katherine's with Mason Lockwood?" Damon asked, expressing his obvious distaste. The two brothers paced back and forth around each other.

Stefan nodded. "We missed it. He got into town right after she did. It makes perfect sense."

"I know, but Mason Lockwood?! Werewolf thing aside, the guy's a surfer!" Damon growled. "She's _got _to be using him. She has to be!"

"Using him for what?"

"Can we stop pacing, please?" Claire asked abruptly, rubbing her head as she surveyed both Damon and Stefan. "It's making me dizzy and _I'm_ sitting down."

"You two should really not be here together right now," Stefan pointed at Claire and Christopher, disregarding Claire's request and continuing to pace. "If someone sees you…"

"Just because we're divorced doesn't mean we can't handle a tough situation together," Christopher pointed out. Before Stefan was able to argue, Amelia was suddenly beside Claire at the outside porch chairs. She sat down with a sigh and looked at Damon.

"I came as _soon _as I got your message."

"I can see that," Damon nodded with a tight smile. Amelia leaned forward on her knees.

"So…Mason Lockwood's looking for a moonstone?"

Damon nodded and looked at Stefan. "That's what she's got to be using him for. The moonstone _allegedly _can break the full moon werewolf curse. Maybe Katherine wants it as well."

"Why would Katherine want a moonstone that can essentially allow werewolves to wipe out the entire vampire population?" Christopher asked, confounded.

Damon opened his mouth to respond, but he gave a delayed answer. "Well…no idea. It's the beauty of Katherine. She's always up to _something_."

"So how are we going to find this moonstone?" Stefan asked.

"Jeremy's getting it from Tyler," Damon answered, as if the problem was solved. Instead, Stefan looked at him like he had fifteen heads.

"Why would you involve _Jeremy_?" The younger Salvatore gave his brother a punishment slap on the shoulder, but Damon shrugged defensively.

"He's playing Indiana Jones!" he called out. "He involved himself!"

"Who's Jeremy again?" Amelia whispered to Claire as Damon watched his brother walk away.

"Elena's little brother," replied Claire.

"Oh!" Amelia nodded. "Right. You know, for a small town, there sure are a lot of names to remember."

"Hey, legally blondes!" Damon's exclamation caused both Claire and Amelia to look up from their conversation to watch him as he started to walk away towards the direction Stefan had gone into. "You two coming?"

Amelia made a sour expression as she repeated the words "legally blondes" under her breath with incredulity and started after him. Claire lingered just long enough for Christopher to be right at her pace so that they unintentionally walked side by side.

"You think this is a good idea?" Claire murmured. "Working together? Being seen out in public?"

"Do you think Katherine's watching?"

"She's always watching." Claire stopped him and spun around on her heel so that she was walking backwards with her eyes locked to his. "Go find Elena. Keep her out of this. The last thing we need is something going wrong. We finally have an upper hand, I'm not letting it slip away."

"But Claire—"

She was gone before he even got a full sentence out, chasing right after Damon, Stefan, and Amelia's tails. He wasn't left with much of a choice but to comply with her command, even though he didn't want to. On some level, she was right; but she didn't have to be so dismissive about it.

Leaving Christopher behind, Claire met up with Amelia and Stefan up on the first-level lawn of the Lockwood property. In their sights, Jeremy and Tyler were standing facing towards each other in the midst of a conversation.

"Do you think I could, uh, check it out again?" Jeremy asked subtly. Tyler shook his head in rejection.

"Nope. Gave it to my uncle."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because I'm done with legends and curses," he rationalized. "I don't want anything to do with it, okay?"

Trying not to seem too desperate, Jeremy chuckled and pretended to brush it off. "Yeah. Uh, yeah, sure. It's probably just…stupid folklore anyways, forget it."

Claire, Amelia, Damon, and Stefan all looked at each other and realized: they'd have to go after Mason Lockwood. Again. Only, this time, they'd be smarter about it.

Jeremy and Damon's arrival to the Lockwood mansion had Elena on edge from the moment they showed themselves. She knew that there was something else going on, but no one was telling her anything. Finding a moment to spare, Elena took out her phone and texted Claire.

**Everything OK?**

Elena waited for a response and eventually got one seconds later.

**Complicated. With Bonnie. I sent Christopher to find you. He'll fill you in. **

Elena stared at the text message Claire had sent her and scoffed. Angrily, she typed: **Bonnie? Christopher's not here. Fill me in. **

"Elena," Christopher said behind the human. The doppelgänger looked up to see Claire's husband make his way down the stairs to her. She got up immediately and turned around at him.

"What the hell is going on?" she demanded. "Damon's got Jeremy into something and Bonnie's with Claire and I'm sorting stupid masquerade masks for Mrs. Lockwood!"

"Calm down," the vampire instructed her, looking around. Elena sighed heavily. "Look, Claire, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia are handling this. They found out that Mason and Katherine are seeing each other."

Elena blinked. "What?"

Christopher nodded. "Yeah. It's a real shocker. But we also found out what she wants—a moonstone. My guess is that right now, they're enlisting Bonnie into helping them find it."

* * *

After sending the text to Elena, Claire turned her phone on silent, slipped the device into her pocket, and listened as Bonnie whispered protests to the urging Damon that dragged her to the farthest point she would voluntarily walk

"Okay! Okay! This is as far as I go."

"Okay," Damon agreed.

"What do you want?"

"A favor."

"Like that's gonna happen."

"_So _predictable!" Damon exclaimed at the pushy, entitled witch. He looked at Claire and Stefan. "That's why I brought them."

Stefan started first, sighing quietly. "I know how you feel about helping us out, but since you're the one that linked Mason with Katherine, we finally have an opportunity to get an upper hand on both of them so just hear us out."

"Pretty please," Damon added.

Bonnie was quiet for a moment. "I'm listening."

"All you have to do is touch Mason Lockwood again and see if he gave Katherine the moon stone," Damon explained with a small smirk. The witch looked up at him with a equally teasing expression.

"My visions don't work like that. I don't get to ask questions."

"How _inconvenient!"_ Damon exclaimed.

"Rude," Amelia chirped at the elder Salvatore, who just rolled his eyes. Stefan intervened.

"He…he didn't mean that."

"Oh, no, he did." Claire crossed her arms. "But we're sorry for it, anyways. Is there anything that you could do to help us get the upper hand on Mason?"

"Ooh!" Damon spun back around at Bonnie. "Let's talk about that little witchy juju thing you do with me. You know, the fun one where my brain bursts into flames? What is that?"

"That's me giving you an aneurism," the witch explained with a smile. "Your blood vessels go _pop_…but you heal quickly, so I do it over and over again."

"Is it vampire-specific?" Damon asked.

"It'd work on anyone with a supernatural healing ability."

"Good," Damon murmured. "Good, good."

"Damon, I'm not going to help you hurt him."

"Look, Bonnie—" Claire started, but was promptly interrupted by Damon's argument with the witch.

"Mason Lockwood's a werewolf, Katherine's evil—they're the bad guys. Really? You're gonna play morality police with me right now?"

"Whoa, okay!" Amelia stepped in. "Maybe, Damon, you should just step—"

When Damon interrupted Amelia as well, Stefan just sighed and rubbed his forehead, ashamed of his brother's negotiation tactics. "Let me put it to you in another way—they're a threat to Elena. So you, witch, are gonna get over yourself and help us."

Things went silent, so Stefan added, "Yeah, he meant that as a question with a 'please' on the end."

Damon smiled. "Absolutely."

Bonnie agreed to help because of Damon's logical points, but she did feel bad about it. Once Mason Lockwood was knocked unconscious by the pain Bonnie executed on him, Damon loaded both Mason and Bonnie into a truck and went off to the boarding house, where she figured out the location of the moonstone.

"Keep an eye out on Elena," Claire told Christopher as she transported a box of masks while he followed closely behind. She tried not to look at him so that they could at least try to remain covert. "I'm waiting for a text from Bonnie about the stone. Once I get it, I'll take Stefan and Amelia and we'll go get it ourselves."

"That's going to be extremely hard," Christopher told her. "Elena's not gonna give up so easily."

"Then keep her distracted." From Claire's pocket, there was a buzzing sound, and she immediately pulled out her phone to find the location of the moonstone in a text from Bonnie. Sighing, she slipped her phone back into her pocket and turned around at Christopher. "Okay?"

Again, even if he didn't agree, he didn't have much of a chance to. Claire walked over to Stefan and Amelia, who were standing by the front doors of the Lockwood mansion, talking in a hushed tone, and she showed them the text about the stone. Immediately, all three walked out and went straight to the location Bonnie texted them. Elena stood by a box of costumes and watched as her ex-boyfriend left with the King sisters and she started to get intrigued and curious. Matt looked back at Claire, Stefan, and Amelia, and then turned to Elena.

"Who's the other blonde with Claire and Stefan?"

Before Elena could respond, Christopher walked up to them. "That's Claire's sister, Amelia."

"Is everything okay?" Elena asked the vampire, eyeing him carefully. Christopher nodded unconvincingly.

"Yep. Everything's fine." He looked down at the costume boxes. "So…costumes, then?"

While, against his own judgment, Christopher kept Elena distracted and busy at the Lockwood mansion, Claire, Stefan, and Amelia made the journey out to the well where Bonnie said the moonstone was located.

"Seems like an odd place to hide a moonstone," Amelia admitted, looking over the net covering of the well.

"Bonnie better be right," Stefan grunted as he managed to bend the lock of the net covering off. He grabbed hold of the covering and said to Amelia, "Watch out."

Stefan tossed the circular metal ring to the side while Claire used her flashlight to shine it inside the well, but the well was too dark and deep for her to see into. She shook her head and looked up at both Stefan and Amelia.

"All right, who's going in?"

"I will." Stefan sighed and climbed on top of the well while Claire handed him her flashlight and nodded at him. As Stefan was about to lunge into the well, Amelia held him back.

"Wait a second…" she trailed off. "This doesn't…this doesn't feel right, Stefan. What if this is a trap?"

He paused, but then shook his head. "Then we'll find out soon enough."

Amelia frowned at him but had no choice in the matter. They had to find the moonstone before Katherine figured out what they were up to, so she nodded and removed her hand from his arm.

"Be careful," Amelia warned. Stefan nodded at her and, without another interruption, jumped down into the well. He landed with a splash into the well water, but found instantly that it started to burn his skin alive. He pulled out his hands and found them raw and bloody, realizing immediately that the well water was contaminated with tons of vervain. Above him, Claire and Amelia heard his cries.

"Stefan?" Claire called out into the well.

"Claire!" Stefan shouted. "Amelia!"

"Stefan! What's wrong? What happened?" Claire shouted down into the water. He groaned again and, though his voice was faint, she could still hear him.

"Vervain," he choked out. Claire and Amelia instantly shared a frightened look and desperately tried to come up with a solution. Claire looked around the well until she finally found the bucket chain. Immediately, she used her supernatural strength to swing the heavy chain so that Stefan could tie himself with it and she could pull it up.

Amelia had another plan.

"What the hell are you doing?" Claire shouted at her sister as Amelia climbed onto the well and looked ready to jump inside. Amelia looked up at Claire.

"Saving Stefan," she said simply. The younger King braced to jump down into the well, but Claire put out her arm so that Amelia couldn't go anywhere.

"Are you _insane_?" Claire demanded with eyes wider than the moon. "That well is full of vervain! Two vampires going down there will just make it worse!"

"Claire, just trust me on this!" Amelia shouted at her sister impatiently. Claire, though reluctant, eventually pulled her hand back and allowed for her sister to jump down into the well. Just as she did, Claire felt someone flash up beside her and she turned to see Caroline.

"Claire? What's going on?" Caroline asked.

"Stefan's down there," Claire explained. "The well is full of vervain. Amelia went to save him."

Amelia settled into the water, feeling the burning sensation on her skin as half of her body was submerged. Stefan had already fallen unconscious due to his weak skin and was floating in the water, face-first. Though the vervain was eating away at her skin, Amelia ignored it effortlessly and pulled Stefan into her arms, feeling his head flop. She looked up at the opening of the well.

"Claire!" she shouted. "Throw down the chain!"

Claire and Caroline, hearing the voice of Amelia below them, quickly struggled to get the chain up and working on the well so that they could bring Stefan up safely. Once the chain hit the bottom of the well, Amelia, grunting and groaning, tied it around Stefan's waist and shouted up at them, "Pull him up!"

"What's going on?" Bonnie asked as she rushed up to Claire and Caroline as they started to pull on the chain to bring the younger Salvatore up. She looked at Caroline. "You just took off in a blur!"

"I heard Claire shouting," Caroline explained. Finally, the two managed to bring Stefan up to land.

Bonnie gasped. "Oh, my God! What happened to him?"

"Mason put vervain at the bottom of the well," Claire explained as she untied the chain from her friend's waist and tossed it back so it was ready for Amelia to use. She pulled Stefan over so that he was lying on the ground beside the well and said to Bonnie through quick breaths, "The sneaky son of a bitch knew vampires were gonna come after it one way or another. Come on, Caroline, we've got to get Amelia out of there."

"How is Amelia able to survive the vervain?" Caroline asked, still confused. Claire shook her head.

"Beats me." She leaned over the well. "Amelia! Grab the chain so we can pull you up!"

"Let me find the moonstone first!" Amelia shouted back. Claire groaned frustratedly.

"Of all the idiot plans!" she murmured to herself, and then shouted to her sister, "Sweet Jesus, Amelia, you can't be down there for long! You can't even be down there at all! I don't know how the hell you're doing it! Get out of there!"

Amelia shook her head to herself as she scowered the walls and floor of the well for the moonstone, all while feeling the vervain gnaw at her skin. Eventually, she stumbled across a brick and pulled at it long enough to find a box. Inside that box, thankfully, was the moonstone.

From the ground, Claire, Caroline, and Bonnie started to hear shouting from Amelia. "Holy _shit_!" They heard.

"What?" Claire screamed down the well. "What is it?"

"Get me the _hell _out of here!" Amelia demanded and, immediately, Claire and Caroline both worked the chain to get her sister out of the well. Amelia finally rose to the top, soaked and covered in hives and red bumps from the vervain, but she climbed out of the well and shook herself off with a shudder.

Claire stared at her sister. She deadpanned sourly, "What, did the vervain finally bother you?"

Amelia shook out her leg. "No. There were just a whole bunch of snakes down there. It was disgusting."

* * *

Once the intensity of the well situation had calmed down, Claire was able to get Stefan back to his full strength by giving him a sip or two from her personal blood stash she kept on her for emergencies. The Lockwood volunteering had ended and Christopher promised to take Elena home before heading back to the King house. Claire and Amelia walked out from the Lockwood mansion onto the porch while Claire eyed the moonstone in her hands.

"Such a small prize for such a big leap." Claire looked up at her sister. "We've got to talk about what happened."

Amelia sighed. "I know you're not an idiot, Claire. I did it for Stefan. I know it, he knows it. We all...know it."

"I know why you did it." She pulled them to a stop on the stairs. "But I want to know _how_. I was about ready to save Stefan, too, but I wouldn't be dumb enough to go into that well because I knew I couldn't survive it. No sane vampire could. But…_you _did. How?"

Amelia was quiet, creating an air between the two of them that was tension-high. Claire waited, patiently, and when Amelia realized that her sister would not let it go until she got an answer, she settled upon the truth. "I told Stefan the other night that Katherine built up a tolerance to vervain. What I didn't tell him was…that _I _did, too. She taught me."

Claire was silent, thinking over her sister's words before coming up with a response. "You and Katherine trade secrets, then?"

"It's not like that, Claire—"

"Then tell me what it _is _like, Amelia!" Claire said furiously, shaking her head. "This woman is out to _destroy _me and…what, you two stay up at night braiding each other's hair? Painting each other's toenails? Teaching each other how to build up a tolerance to vervain, I mean…this is ridiculous! How can I know that you're on our side?"

"How could you even ask me that?" Amelia barked, more hurt than anything. "I'm your sister, Claire!"

"No, Amelia," Claire snapped, the words chucked out of her mouth before she could stop them. The two blondes stared at each other for a while before the elder one sighed heavily and whispered at last, "You're not."

Amelia was quiet for a moment until she swallowed. "Is that what this is about? Us not being sisters? Claire, I don't...I don't care what a stupid _book _has to say about our family lineage."

"It's not about the book, Amelia, it's about _blood_." She gestured between them. "And you and I don't share the same blood. We never did. Even if we did, I don't know you anymore. I...I thought you were dead for 150 years! And, as it turns out, you were tag-teaming with the woman who _killed _me!"

There was nothing that Amelia could say to make things better between them. Claire was right; they weren't related by blood and they hardly knew each other. But that didn't mean they weren't sisters. Amelia began slowly, "Once I found out the resentment Katherine had against you and she started to plan things, I knew I had to get out of it. And that's what I'm doing. We may not be _real _sisters, Claire...and we may not know each other as well as we'd like, but we have the rest of eternity to...figure everything out."

Claire bit down on her lip in thought, staring at the stranger in front of her in wonder. Eventually, she exhaled. "You're…right. I'm sorry. That was harsh." Amelia nodded in understanding, and Claire finally whispered, "You do know that she's going to find out that you're double-crossing her sometime, right? And when that time comes…"

"She'll be out to get me, too. Trust me, I know."

Claire frowned. "Well, I was gonna say that you always have a room at the boarding house, but yeah…that too." The sisters smiled at each other quietly before Claire let out a sigh and started to move down the stairs. "All right, well…I have to get Stefan back to the house and I have a dinner with Elena and her aunt. Are you gonna be okay?"

Amelia nodded. "Yeah. I'm probably going to go get a bite to eat first." They both knew that she wasn't talking about a cheeseburger. "I may have built up a tolerance to vervain but…"

"But it still drained you. I got it." Claire smiled softly. "Goodnight, Amelia."

"Night, Claire."

Once again, the youngest King disappeared off into the night. Claire drove Stefan back to the boarding house and then went right over to the Gilbert's. Elena was upstairs as Alaric greeted Claire at the threshold and took her into the kitchen, where she helped with the setup for the dinner. She had to admit that it was nice to spend a night where she wasn't surrounded by two constantly fighting brothers or worrying about what lies Katherine was spreading around inside of Christopher's head. It was nice to spend a few moments with her friends.

Elena came down a few minutes after her arrival. "Hey, Claire," she greeted.

Claire smiled. "Hey, Elena."

"Where's Jeremy?" Elena asked Alaric as she tried to get in on helping set the table. Alaric shrugged.

"Oh, he went straight up to his room. He said he wasn't hungry."

Nodding, Elena looked over at Jenna and asked Alaric a question that Claire wasn't focusing on when her phone buzzed in her pocket and she found a text message from Stefan on the screen.

**Damon provoked Katherine. You still with Elena? **

Quickly, she typed a response with an exasperated exhale.

**Of course he did. Yeah, why? **

His final response came seconds later: **Just make sure you're both careful. **

With a respectful "will do" response from Claire, she put her phone away just to have Jenna walk over to her and hand her the phone.

"Claire, it's for you," Jenna said softly before returning back to her cooking. Claire looked at Alaric and Elena with curiosity before pulling the phone up to her ear and speaking carefully.

"This is Claire," she said cautiously.

"_Hello, Clarissa_."

Alaric and Elena both waited for her to tell who the caller was, but Claire stiffened and moved out of their way into the living room, shaking her head to tell them to keep away.

"What do you want, Katherine?" she hissed into the speaker.

"_Did you enjoy your little rendezvous with Christopher last night?"_ The vampire fell silent, but opened her mouth to protest when Katherine took words right out of her mouth. _"I will always know, Claire. I will always be one step ahead of you. When are you going to figure that out?" _

"You listen to me, you _sadistic _little bitch—"

"_Do you know how easy it was to get inside of Elena's house?" _Katherine barreled on, never minding Claire's unfinished threat. _"To replace Aunt Jenna's vervain perfume? To convince her to stop drinking her special tea?" _

Elena walked over to Claire, silently asking who it was. Claire refused her, focusing on Katherine on the other side of the phone, waiting to see what sort of move she made. She kept quiet and waited for Katherine's punch line.

"_Jenna's been my little spy for days now. But, unlike you, Jenna actually listens to me. So when I suggested that the world would be a much better place if she were to just—"_

From behind her, Claire heard Elena shout, "Jenna, no!"

Claire whipped around, but it was too late. Elena started to dash, but Jenna had already stabbed herself in the stomach with the knife she held in her hand for slicing the bread. Blood began to pool everywhere as Alaric and Elena rushed up to the human and started to panic. Claire wanted to help, but she turned back to the phone and listened as Katherine finished, _"Well, you get the idea." _

"Going after me, Katherine, that's one thing," Claire began through her teeth. "But Elena? Jenna? Your fight's always been with _me, _Katherine! No one else!"

"_Well, now I'm playing by different rules." _Katherine paused. _"But you are right. My fight is with you. Which is why I took a trip over to Jack King's house a few minutes ago." _

Claire looked back to find Elena talking to a 911 operator on the phone while Alaric desperately tried to stop the bleeding from his girlfriend's stomach. Claire knew she had to help, but she wasn't finished talking to Katherine yet.

"What did you do?"

"_Me? Nothing. You? Everything." _Katherine giggled. _"You know, Claire, it's really quite ironic. You do all my dirty work for me. So all I had to do was...tell the truth. For once."_

* * *

"Christopher?" Claire called out as she walked into the King household looking for her husband. Jenna was at the hospital making a recovery and Elena had told Claire to go and check on what Katherine was trying to say to her earlier over the phone line. Claire could tell that the human was not too happy with her at the moment and the vampire felt astronomically horrible about it, but couldn't help at all. Elena refused vampire blood and her support so there was nothing left to do, at the moment, other than give her space.

Christopher didn't respond, and for a moment, Claire feared Katherine had killed him. It was a dark thought that crossed her mind for only a moment until she reached his bedroom and pushed open the door to find something probably worse.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked Christopher as she watched him shove his clothes into an open suitcase on the bed. Christopher looked up at her for a moment and she saw something that she didn't care for—disappointment. He ignored her and turned back to the dresser where he carried his clothes from the drawers to the suitcase. But if there was one thing Claire loathed, it was being ignored. "Hey! I asked you a question! What are you doing?"

"Don't bother telling me it's not true." Christopher shook his head. "Katherine's a lot of things, but there are some lies she can't pull off. She wasn't lying this time."

"What the hell are you—?"

He threw a few shirts into his suitcase and cut her off, shouting, "You _kissed _Damon, Claire! On Founder's Day! She said she saw it with her own two eyes and I believe her!"

Claire fell absolutely silent. Now she understood—Katherine was right. She _did _do the dirty work for her. All Katherine had to do was tell the truth.

The blonde vampire inched forward to her husband. She thought of lying, but what was the point anymore? One lie after another involving her selfish relationship with Damon, that wasn't the right thing to do. "Christopher, I'm so sor—"

"Sorry?" he finished furiously. "You're sorry? God _damn _it, Claire! No! You can't tell me that you're sorry every single time you end up making a mistake that involves _Damon Salvatore_. I believed you when you told me that there was nothing going on between the two of you and here we are—you _lied_ to me!"

Claire shook her head desperately. "I didn't know how to tell you the truth, okay? I didn't want to ruin everything we worked for!"

"But you already did that, didn't you?" Christopher challenged, causing her to silence. "By kissing him, that's exactly what you did. You ruined all of it."

"I don't..." Claire trailed off. "I don't know what came over me. I was confused and he was there and I—"

"And is that your excuse?" he asked, practically scoffing. "That you were confused? That you didn't know any better? That he was just _conveniently _there? If Stefan had just been 'there', you would've never kissed him! Because you don't love him! Not like you love Damon, anyway. You love him, Claire, you've always loved him."

"Now that's just not true," Claire snapped coldly. Christopher snorted.

"Right. Right, I forgot. Because you don't love _anyone_." She flinched at his harsh words, which were carried out more by his tone than anything else. But, for once, Christopher didn't give a damn about how she felt. Furiously, he zipped up his bag and picked it up from the bed to carry it out. However, Claire wasn't going to let him go without a fight.

"Stop! I said I was sorry and I meant it. You don't have to leave. We can work through this." They stared at each other, but neither one caved. Finally, Claire shook her head. "I set Damon straight that night he came over to Elena's house and killed her brother. I told him I wanted nothing to do with him and I said it would never happen again. I meant that, too, I swear."

So they stood there, head-to-head, waiting for a compromise. Claire didn't want him to leave, she wanted it to work. She was trying so _hard _to make it work. But instead, he shook his head at her and whispered softly, "I'm sorry, Claire. I can't trust you anymore. I need some time."

He moved towards the door, leaving her standing in the middle of the room, heartbroken and absolutely lost. But just before he left, still keeping his back turned, he said something else while setting her wedding ring set down on the nightstand. She had entrusted him with the bands until Katherine stopped tormenting them, but now he released the responsibility.

"Consider this our divorce."

* * *

She didn't know how she got back to the boarding house. Somehow, though, she ended up pushing herself through the front door of the home feeling as if she was about to collapse. She moved slow and delayed, listening quietly as the door came to a close behind her. But the moment she entered the house, she heard her name being called.

"Claire?"

Her eyes drifted up and she watched as Damon slowly made his way from inside the parlor over to the foyer, all while wearing a guilty expression upon his face as if he'd done something wrong. She wanted to be angry with him—she wanted to throw something at his head and maybe knock him unconscious for a few hours. But nothing that she could do to him would change the fact that it was all _her _fault.

"Oh, God…" Damon whispered at her. "Claire, I riled Katherine up. I…I wasn't thinking—I didn't think!"

Claire shook her head. "I did this to myself."

Damon swallowed thickly. "No, Claire, you didn't do anything—"

"It doesn't matter, Damon!" Claire shouted at him, tired of hearing him defend her. Damon stopped and watched as her eyes turned to somewhat resemble exactly what he looked like when he gave up hope in times of desperation. She lost control. Before bolting up the stairs, she choked out, "She won, like she always does. Katherine won."

* * *

"I apologize if I seem rattled," Katherine stressed to her visitor as she paced around her room. "The circumstances have changed suddenly, and I had to adjust. Mind control is a necessary evil. You see, I need a werewolf, and I've lost the one that I had. Now tell me what you're going to do to help me get a new one."

Matt Donovan stared back at Katherine as he repeated the words she planted in his head, "I'm going to go after Tyler Lockwood."

Katherine smiled and leaned forward, using more compulsion on him. "And you're not going to stop."

"And I'm not going to stop."

"Until?"

"Until he kills me."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please! Same time next week :) Also, if you haven't seen it, there's a poll up on my profile asking what social media app is better for me to join and communicate with you all while I'm offline on here just so that I don't keep you all in the dark on things. Vote for either Twitter or Instagram and I'll be making one soon!**

**Oh, and, I realize that this is late and all, but...there's a trailer up on YouTube for this story now. I was fiddling around with my video editing program and somehow it turned into a trailer. Go check it out! Link is up on my profile.**

* * *

**Savage Kill: **Well, Katherine's a complicated woman. She never just wants a man just because, she always has a purpose, whether it's good or bad. In Christopher's case, she wanted him...probably because Claire had him, first off, and secondly because he made her feel special. But their relationship won't really kick off until later on. Yay for Stefan! Sorry for the wait but thanks for the review!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Maybe not as early as Season 4, but we'll see ;) Thanks for the review!

**NicoleR85: **Thanks! Yes, I hated that too. My goal with Claire and Caroline is for them to become really close over the next few seasons. After all, Caroline is Claire's first sire and Claire isn't one just to leave the people she cares about behind. We'll get to see Claire defending Caroline more probably later on in the series.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Bonding's always fun. Thanks for the review.

**RHatch89: **Thanks!

**grapejuice101: **Katherine still used Jenna except...she added a little extra twist. Thanks for the review!

**JessBubble: **I do watch The 100! It's like my favorite television show honestly. I prefer Bellamy and Clarke over Clarke and Finn but I don't mind either couple. But in the books, I'm definitely a Bellarke shipper. Thanks so much! I'm definitely planning on bringing Klaus and the rest of The Originals in, just as it is in the show. Klaus and Claire will become...frenemies haha. You'll just have to stick around and see! Well, now that Christopher's gone, we'll have to see about Damon and Claire but I'm not abandoning Katherine and Christopher's dynamic any time soon. Thanks for reviewing.

**Bella Lugosi: **Yeah it's sad for Elena but I really want this story to go in the direction where Elena becomes independent. The thing is, even with Damon and Stefan, Claire and Amelia are dependent on their own and they don't need someone to save them unless it's obvious they can't get out of a situation without help. But Elena has always really been dependent on the brothers and she does a lot of things in the series for the wrong reasons. My goal for her character is to make her stronger than she is in the show so that I can write a character that I like. Otherwise, I'd just have to kill her off and I don't necessarily want to do that. The sacrifice will be an interesting thing to see but you'll just have to wait! I hope the Claire/Damon scene at the end was enough for now...Thanks for reviewing!

**beth: **Thanks for the review. Again, my apologies for the extensive wait on this chapter.

**peygoodwin: **Thanks!

**klandgraf2007: **Aw thanks!

**mandy: **It was a thought at one point, I won't deny it. But I thought that would be too cruel so the sister stays. For now, at least. Thanks for the review!


	21. Masquerade

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Masquerade**

"Here." Damon extended a glass full of chilled blood to the nervous blonde vampire sitting on the couch impatiently waiting for Stefan to arrive. Immediately, Caroline took the glass of human blood and sighed.

"I'm still shaking." She brought the glass up to her lips and drank slowly just as Stefan rushed into the room.

"What happened?"

"Go ahead, tell him," Damon urged the young vampire. He looked up at Stefan. "You're gonna love this."

"I saw Katherine today," Caroline confessed. Stefan didn't seem shocked, but rather intrigued.

"Where?"

"At the Grill. I-I just stopped by to gawk and quasi-stalk Matt—"

"Houston, we have a problem!" Damon, Caroline, and Stefan all looked towards the threshold of the Salvatore study as Amelia came barging in, a distressed look on her face. She walked over to the three of them and opened her mouth to start speaking, then closed it, confused. "Where's my sister?"

"You don't have one," Damon teased with a smile. Amelia frowned at him.

"Ha, ha. Funny." She shook her head. "Should've known you'd make that joke sometime. But seriously, where's Claire?"

"She stopped by Elena's house to help with Jenna," Stefan answered. "What's wrong?"

Amelia inhaled carefully. "Katherine's onto me. Actually…I think she's pretty much figured it all out."

"Can I finish my story first?" Caroline bit at the older vampires from her position on the couch, still wrecked with the nerves from her meeting with Katherine. Damon rolled his eyes.

"Then skip the teen drama and get to it," he demanded. Caroline let out a frustrated sigh.

"She wanted me to deliver a message to you two."

Stefan arched an eyebrow. "What was the message?"

The blonde vampire sucked in a breath. "She wants the moonstone. If she doesn't get it, she's threatening to kill people."

"Tell him the rest of it," Damon urged.

"Tonight. At the masquerade ball."

"She wants to do it in public," Stefan deduced. "Killing Mason threw her off guard."

"No kidding!" Amelia scoffed. "It threw her so off guard she started going through my messages on my phone and ransacked my room. She definitely knows I'm working against her."

"Yeah, yeah, we all knew the truth was gonna come out sometime." Damon waved his hand at her and shook his head. "She's running scared. What she did to Jenna was desperate; telling Christopher about me and Claire was downright pathetic. She's out of tricks."

"We can't underestimate her. We have to play smarter than her," Stefan strategized.

Caroline looked up at Stefan and suggested, "Can't we just give her the moonstone so she'll leave?"

"No," Damon rejected. "Katherine's not getting dick. I've had it. I'm gonna go to the masquerade ball and I'm gonna kill her. Tonight."

"You're not gonna kill her," Stefan protested. Damon looked up at his brother with anger.

"Don't give me that goody-goody crap!"

"You're not gonna kill her."

"Oh, really?"

Stefan smiled and nodded. "Because I am."

The two brothers gave each other approving looks, but Amelia interrupted their masculine moment.

"Um…shouldn't Claire be the one to kill her? You know, poetic justice and all?" Stefan and Damon looked at the youngest King and said nothing with words but everything with expression. Amelia sighed. "Well, fine. I guess I'll just shut up now, then."

* * *

As Matt and Jeremy helped Jenna get through the threshold and back into the Gilbert home, Claire helped Elena with the "Get Well Soon" flowers and bears Jenna had gotten from her friends and had taken home from the hospital.

"Easy. Grab the door, Jer," Matt called out.

Jenna groaned. "Hey, stop fussing, I'm fine."

"The doctors said that you have to take it easy," Elena told her aunt softly.

"Yeah, you don't want to rip your stitches, hemorrhage, and die, all right?" Jeremy added from behind her. Claire and Matt helped Jenna move down the stairs from the foyer into the living room.

"Yeah, the only thing I'm gonna die from is embarrassment."

"No…" Matt trailed off.

"I _walked _into a knife!" Jenna exclaimed. "How does somebody do that?"

"It…was a freak accident," Elena said slowly, knowing that it wasn't the truth. Claire and Elena exchanged a glance, knowing that it was her compulsion that made Aunt Jenna think that way. However, the second Claire made Jenna think that the knife wound was a mere accident, Elena chocked her aunt full of the herb that would protect Jenna from being manipulated ever again.

"Yeah, it happens," Jeremy added. Matt scoffed.

"Yeah, I mean, I've done it like twenty times at the Grill." Jenna started to laugh, causing pain in her side. Matt chuckled, too. "Okay, I'm being nice."

Matt and Claire managed to get Jenna onto the couch so that she was comfortable. Claire waved the bottle of wine she had brought as a gift for Jenna up high with a smile.

"I bet this could cheer you up…"

Jenna groaned. "The doctor said I couldn't have alcohol for a week! That just depresses me."

Claire shook her head. "Alcohol is never depressing. We'll just save it until you get better. I'll go put it away."

As Elena walked into the kitchen with Jeremy on her heels, Claire followed them both so that she could put the wine away and save it for another time when Jenna was allowed back on the good stuff.

"So what are we gonna do?" Jeremy asked Elena as she set her things down on the center island and sighed.

"Make lunch."

"About Katherine," Jeremy clarified. Elena looked up at him and shook her head.

"We're not gonna do anything, Jeremy."

"Come on. She tried to kill Jenna. We can't let her get away with that." Jeremy looked over at the blonde vampire in their kitchen. "Claire, you _have _to have some sort of a plan, right?"

Claire looked back at him and scoffed. "Why do you assume I have a plan?"

"Because this was all because of you!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Because she's doing everything in her power to get revenge on you for some sick, twisted reason. What if she tries something else?"

Claire exhaled and moved to grab water from the Gilbert fridge. "Stop wasting your time, Jeremy. Whatever Katherine wants, Katherine gets. She made that clear when she told Christopher what I did and he left. Apparently, ruining my life wasn't enough so she decided to go after your family and...frankly, yeah, it's my fault. So before someone else gets hurt, I'm doing what she wants. I've isolated myself from Damon and Stefan to get her to back the hell off and now all that matters is getting Jenna recovered."

"You can't be _serious._" Jeremy scoffed. He stared at her with an incredulous look, causing her to slam her water bottle down and stare back coldly at him.

"Look, let me tell you a little story, okay? Once upon a time, there was an evil bitch named Katherine Pierce who didn't give two _shits _about anyone else. Today, she revels in her triumph and I'm not going to do anything about it. The end."

Jeremy ground his teeth together in anger and frustratedly turned on his heel to walk out the back door. As he did, Elena called out, "Where are you going?"

"Out," he told her, then looked at Matt and Jenna in the living room. "I'll be back!"

When Jeremy was gone, Elena sighed, but still kept unpacking the food in the bag that Matt had given her. Claire grabbed another bottle of water for Elena, who was surveying the vampire slowly.

"Thanks for…helping out around here," Elena told her. Claire looked up at the human.

"You shouldn't be thanking me," Claire said slowly. "This was all _because_ of me, like Jeremy said. Katherine was after me, your family never should have been involved and now…now I feel terrible about it."

"Good." Elena shrugged, earning Claire to look up at the human with confused eyes. Sure, she knew that it was her fault and everything, but she didn't expect Elena to be so blunt about it. Elena's chocolate eyes locked with Claire's as she continued compassionately. "Claire, the minute you stop feeling bad about something is the moment that Katherine really wins. She can ruin all the relationships she wants, but there's one thing you'll have that she never will: the capacity to care_." _

Claire exhaled. "I guess you're right."

"So you've been avoiding Damon and Stefan?" Elena asked quietly. Her guest nodded.

"Yep. As much as I can, anyway. Stefan keeps trying to talk to me but I…I don't really feel like it right now." Claire let out a deep sigh and drank some water out of the bottle she took out of the fridge. "Right now, I just need to make Katherine happy and stay away. After all, that's what she wanted."

"You're just gonna give in? So easily?" Some part of Elena was shocked—it was hardly like Claire to just roll over and take it. Claire shrugged, defeated.

"I've run out of moves, Elena," she confessed seriously. "I have nothing left in me. I'm done fighting her. It's not worth it anymore."

Elena wasn't given the chance to respond and give another pep talk before Claire walked over to Jenna with the two glasses of water with a small smile on her face, pretending like everything was okay.

* * *

"Hey," Caroline greeted Bonnie as she opened the door to reveal the Bennett witch carrying the Grimoire on her arm. "Come on in."

"I got Stefan's message," Bonnie rushed out hurriedly as she walked towards the parlor, where Stefan was standing by the couch. He let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the witch.

"Hey! You brought the Grimoire. Thank you." Bonnie's eyes drifted into the parlor where she saw Damon, Amelia, and Alaric standing over a table full of weapons—stakes and vervain darts and other things of that nature. Seeing them, she immediately got concerned.

"What's going on?" she asked. Stefan braced to answer, but Jeremy did instead, walking out from the hallway to stand next to Bonnie.

"We're gonna kill Katherine," said the young Gilbert before he went to see Alaric, Caroline, Amelia, and Damon at the table full of weapons. An alarmed Bonnie looked over at Stefan, who tried to amend the quickness of the teenager's statement.

"I can explain," Stefan promised.

"Please," Bonnie urged.

He took a moment. "…We're gonna kill Katherine."

There was nothing more to say. Bonnie watched as Stefan went over to Alaric, who was showing all of the participants his assortment of weapons that would kill a vampire, whereupon one could pick and choose their poison to take Katherine down. Bonnie, though reluctant, followed Stefan to the table and joined in as Alaric lectured them all.

"Now for you, I recommend this," he said to the Salvatore brothers as he slipped on a sleeve fit with a few wooden stakes ready to be fired. "It fits nicely under the jacket sleeve. Here's the trigger. When you're ready…"

He pressed a button on the sleeve and a wooden stake came flying out straight into his hand where he grasped it in his fist and thrust upward, pretending to stake a vampire in the chest. All vampires watched with some ounce of concern seeing the serious vampire-killing look on Ric's face.

"You wanted me to show you how to kill vampires," Alaric defended himself against the group of vampires on defense against him.

"Yeah, that doesn't make me feel like you're going to run into my room with a stake tonight, Van Helsing," Amelia protested as Alaric slipped the sleeve off his wrist. She grabbed it from him. "Give me that."

As everyone ran around like chickens with their heads cut off to try and devise a plan that was good enough to trick the great Katherine Pierce, Bonnie struggled to keep up at Stefan's side.

"I _know _you're trying to end this for Claire and everything, but it's _risky_! Too many people could get hurt."

"Look, Katherine started a fight with Claire that has gotten way too out of control," Stefan began rationally. "She _drove _Christopher out of the town and what she did to Jenna…it crossed the line. She has to be stopped before it happens again."

But Bonnie was unsure. "I don't know, Stefan..."

"Look, Katherine knows me, all right?" He tried to convince her. "She knows that I'm not going to try something in a crowd full of innocent people. So that gives me an edge. I can catch her by surprise."

Bonnie's gaze drifted to the other team players surrounding the weaponry, where she finally sighed and suggested, "I _could _do a spell to trap her. Like the tomb spell."

"Right," agreed the younger Salvatore. "We can isolate her away from the others." Bonnie didn't say anything in agreement or rejection, causing Stefan to beg, "Please, Bonnie?"

She took a moment before finally agreeing, though obviously with reservations.

After the plan was all laid out before them, the team assembled in the Salvatore parlor around the coffee table in front of the fire place for the final agreement so that their plan did not fall through due to emotions or reneging on promises. Alaric sighed, frustrated about his job.

"Are you sure you guys don't want me there tonight?" he asked the vampires.

Stefan answered immediately. "No, you need to make sure Elena doesn't know and that Claire doesn't try to follow us."

"Okay." Alaric nodded curtly. "Well, I'll make sure Claire never leaves my sight, then."

Stefan nodded and turned to the rest of the team. "All right. If anybody wants to back out, I'll understand."

"Yeah," Damon seconded. "Cold feet speak now. I don't want this going wrong if someone chickens out. Caroline?"

"I won't," the blonde said abruptly. "She killed me. Fair's fair. As long as there are no werewolves running around."

Damon smirked. "Oh, I took care of Mason."

"And as long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn," Jeremy assured them.

"Amelia?" Damon almost sung, turning his head to the other blonde vampire right at his side. She looked over at him and, for a moment, stared, and then gasped.

"Oh. Right. Cold feet? Hell no. Katherine's been after my sister for years, it's time for it to end." She looked around the group. "But…I mean…we should _really _bring Claire in on this…"

"No, we shouldn't." Damon groaned. "The _last _thing we need is our _beloved _Clarissa getting all 'Claire King' on us and annihilating Katherine before I even get one go around."

A smile pricked at Amelia's thin lips. "You're just saying that because you _care_," she whispered. He looked up at her with a sour smile.

"I'm saying it because _I _want the pleasure of killing the _bitch _that ruined my life, thank you."

"Bonnie?" Stefan ignored the two bickering vampires behind him to look at the one person in the group that was most likely to cave—the witch. "Are you with us?"

There was a long pause that resembled a deafening hesitation, but at last, Bonnie stepped forward clutching the Grimoire in her arms and nodded. "But no one gets hurt."

"Except Katherine," Damon chimed. "Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart."

* * *

The Lockwood mansion was crowded with residents of Mystic Falls all decked out in masquerade costumes in the spirit of helping the homeless in the name of charity. Flame throwers and entertainment performers were scattered everywhere to distract and amuse the guests to their enjoyment. Out on the lawn, Damon smoothly danced up to his tense brother's side.

"Do you see her?"

"Nope. You sure you can do this?" Stefan replied. Damon scoffed.

"Who are you talking to?"

"I've had plenty of chances to kill her and I hesitated."

"Well, that is the fork in the road between you and me, my friend! I don't hesitate," Damon insisted with a small smile. Stefan, however, wasn't buying any of what Damon was selling.

"You spent 145 years loving her. It could happen."

"I won't hesitate," Damon promised, looking over at Stefan. The younger brother nodded his head once, trying to believe Damon but only time would tell.

"Okay," Stefan agreed, knowing that the two of them would have to wait and see. He sighed. "How angry do you think Claire will be with us when she finds out we did this without her?"

Damon exhaled. "It's nothing I can't handle. I've been handling it for my entire eternal existence." He glanced over at Stefan. "But you…oh, this will be something new for you, won't it, Stefan?"

"You think she'll be that angry?" Stefan asked, slightly concerned. Damon smiled and patted his brother on the shoulder.

"Everything you're imagining…amplify it by ten." With that vote of encouragement, Damon walked back up the stairs away from his brother, leaving Stefan to think about what he was imagining and amplify it by ten, like Damon had said. When he came up with the result, Stefan let out a heavy sigh.

"Oh, dear God, that can't be good," he mumbled to himself before going off to disappear in the crowd.

* * *

"We have to drink this stuff in _secret_," Claire whispered to Ric as they were in the kitchen, screwing off the cork on the wine bottle Claire had told Jenna she would stash earlier. "The doctor said Jenna can't have any until she gets better so I told her I would save it."

Alaric stilled his hand on the corkscrew. "Then maybe we should…"

"Give me that!" Claire snapped and pulled the bottle from Alaric into her arms, where she started to unscrew the cork again. "I can get more, Ric. I'm a freaking vampire; if you want, I can have a vintage Bordeaux shipped to your door by tomorrow. Get the glasses."

Alaric walked over to the cabinet in the kitchen and grabbed two wine glasses for them as Claire popped open the bottle quietly so that Jenna wouldn't hear. Elena and Jenna were both on the couch in the living room watching television eating pizza, oblivious to the two of them in the kitchen. While Alaric walked over to her with the glasses in hand, Claire reached over and checked her phone for any messages, disappointed to find that there were none. Alaric reached her at the table and eyed her curiosity.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

Claire looked up at him. "No, actually. I haven't gotten a single text message all day—not from Stefan, from Damon, from Amelia…not even from _Caroline. _Something's wrong."

Alaric grabbed the wine bottle from her and started to pour. "I'm sure it's nothing," he lied.

The blonde vampire pursed her lips. "Or…it could be everything," she began, causing Alaric to glance up at her. She narrowed her eyes. "What are they planning?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, trying to play dumb. She frowned at him.

"Damon and Stefan are up to something. I know when they're up to something." She leaned forward. "_You're _up to something. Spill it, Helsing."

Alaric groaned. "What, is that some sort of inside joke or something? Amelia said—"

"Ha!" Claire pointed a finger at him accusingly. "You've been talking to my sister. Come on, Ric, give it up. What's going on?"

He was silent for a long time, realizing he had been caught. Eventually, he shrugged. "I don't know what to say, Claire."

The two adults stared at each other for a while before Claire finally gave him a small smile and started to rise from her seat. "All right, well, then, I think I'll just be heading back to the boarding house. I had a nice time and everything—"

"Wait!" Alaric stopped her, grabbing her arm to pull her back down. "Wait. Wait."

"Beans. Spill. Now," Claire demanded as she sat back down and crossed her legs patiently. The vampire hunter's mind spun around trying to come up with a lie, and eventually, he settled upon the partial truth.

"Stefan sent me over to keep an eye on you while he, Amelia, and Damon are at the Lockwood party tonight. Just so that you'd have some extra help in case Katherine showed up and decided to make a move."

"The Lockwood party?" Claire repeated. "You mean the masquerade ball? Why would Damon and Stefan go to that? That doesn't even sound like them at all. Plus, Stefan _always _makes me go with him—"

"Claire," Alaric interrupted her, shaking his head softly. "Just…let this one go, okay? Let Stefan and Damon do what they need to."

Claire fell silent while Alaric poured himself a little of the expensive wine and got up from the kitchen table, leaving her to ponder over her current confliction on whether to stay on the sidelines or join the crowd.

* * *

The soft music played over the stereo speakers on the dance floor under the gazebo as Stefan walked around, alone. He wasn't exactly _searching _for Katherine, but he was looking for her, anxious to when she would show herself to him. He kept himself available, however, waiting for the right moment she would choose to present herself and make her demands. Finally, Stefan spotted her as she started to walk down the stairs to the gazebo, and he kept himself focused. She disappeared after a moment, his eyes temporarily too slow to realize until her voice ended up right behind him.

"Dance with me," Katherine suggested as he turned around. She titled her head and peered up at him with seductive eyes. Now was the fun part.

"No," Stefan said simply.

A passing tray of strawberries went around and Katherine grabbed onto one with a sigh. "Fine. Then tell me who I should kill. Him? She looks delicious."

As her eyes wandered, Katherine bit down on the strawberry and pulled it away from her mouth. Finally giving into her games, Stefan held out his arm, Katherine put the strawberry leaves on another passing tray and then fit her arm into Stefan's as he led her out to the dance floor.

Once he pulled her close, Katherine chuckled. "It's a beautiful night."

He copied her chuckle, more fed up than anything. "Why the charade?"

"How's Jenna? I certainly didn't expect her to survive that. Lucky girl. Clumsy. How _does _one stab oneself?"

"Katherine," Stefan began.

"Hmm?" she replied.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt tonight."

"Okay," the brunette agreed. "Then give me the moonstone and nobody will."

"Hm. Well, see, I don't have the moonstone on me. So you and I will have to go get it together."

"Hm." Back and forth, like cat and mouse. It was amusing, to the both of them. "I have a better plan. You go fetch it and I will try not to kill anyone in the meantime."

Stefan chuckled under his breath and pushed her further. "My way…or you don't get it."

But just as everything was going as planned and no one innocent was getting injured or killed, a human had to intervene and distract Katherine from the main goal. Aimee, another teenager at Mystic Falls High, walked up to Stefan and interrupted.

"Hey, Stefan, I can't find Matt…" she began, then saw Elena dancing with him and stopped. "Oh, my god, Elena, you look so pretty! I _love _that dress. You look gorge."

Katherine smiled. "Thank you. I love your necklace."

"Oh, thanks!"

"Oh, it's twisted," said Katherine as she pulled away to Stefan to walk behind the teenager. "Here, let me. Here we go."

And in the blink of an eye, Katherine punched her hand into the teenager's spine and the wounded girl gave a dying gasp. Stefan's eyes widened.

"Paralyzed from the waist down," the vampire announced. Another punch came and Aimee slumped over. "And dead."

She tossed the body to Stefan, who caught it red-handed in the midst of a moving crowd. Katherine, however, didn't seem to care at all about their exposure. Stefan was panicking. Katherine turned to walk away, but not without one last threat.

"The moonstone, Stefan. Tick, tock."

* * *

With two more pizza-greased dishes in hand, Claire walked over to Elena at the dishwasher and bent down to help her with the dishes she was putting away. Elena shook her head.

"Oh, I've—"

"I need a favor," Claire whispered quietly, low enough so that only Elena could hear and so that Alaric and Jenna could not suspect anything from in the living room as they were focused on the movie that was playing on the television. Elena silenced and waited for Claire's instructions. "I'm gonna slip out the back door in about thirty seconds. Something's going on at the masquerade party. I'm gonna figure out what it is."

"What?" Elena gasped, concerned. "Well, let me come with you."

Claire shook her head. "Alaric's watching my every move and in order to slip away, I need you to distract him. Can you do that for me? As long as possible? Just stall."

The vampire could see that Elena was desperate to be a part of the action but realized what she needed to be doing. Finally, Elena nodded and shut the dishwasher silently. From that point forward, neither Claire nor Elena said anything as Elena turned to the living room to join Alaric and Jenna while Claire moved towards the back door and stealthily slipped out.

"What are we watching next?" Elena proposed.

"There's a _Seinfeld _marathon on," Jenna answered her. Alaric looked over into the dim kitchen, searching for the pale blonde vampire he was meant to keep an eye out on. Seeing her nowhere, he immediately got concerned.

"Where's Claire?"

"Oh, she spilled something on her shirt so she went to wash it off. She'll be right out," the teenager lied, and though Alaric was somewhat suspicious, he turned back to the television and didn't say another word.

* * *

"I put the body in the trunk for now," Stefan told his brother and Amelia as he walked into the room they were waiting in until Katherine and Caroline showed up. Damon sighed, realizing that the body did put a damper on things.

"We'll…dump her when we get back."

Stefan let out a large, disappointed exhale. "This is exactly what I didn't want, Damon!"

"Stefan, it's collateral damage," Damon tried to explain to his brother. Amelia, surprisingly, backed Damon up on that one.

"He's right, Stefan. It was unrealistic of us to think that Katherine was going to go down without a fight."

"Right!" Stefan looked between the two of them. "Which is why we need to call it off."

"What?" Damon gasped at his younger sibling. "Who's hesitating now? Hey! Don't do this to me!" Briskly, he walked over to Stefan and clamped a hand down on his shoulder. "This woman ruined our lives. She destroyed us. She took everything from Claire and sure as hell won't stop until she's _dead. _Tonight it ends. We can do it together. I got your back."

"Me, too. You have to do this, Stefan. For all of us." Amelia stepped forward, standing right behind Damon, looking Stefan right in the eye. Damon moved slightly to eye Amelia behind him, and he gave her an approving nod before looking back at his brother.

"All right?" the dark-haired Salvatore prompted his sibling, waiting for Stefan to get back on board. Finally, Stefan nodded.

"All right."

Damon let out a long breath. "Good." He turned around at Amelia. "Text Jeremy. Tell him we're ready."

"On it." Amelia already had her phone out by the time she got the last syllable of her reply out of her mouth. Once the text message was sent, all the three had to do was wait until Katherine showed up to their trap to finally put an end to her once and for all.

* * *

Jeremy's part of the plan had been simple: he received the text from Amelia, went to Katherine, told her that Damon and Stefan wanted to meet her at the edge of the lake, and waited for Katherine to take the bait. Except, the reason their plan was so ingenious was that they had thought of everything—Katherine would never do something that they told her to do. She would know it was a trap. But that next part was on Caroline, hence the reason Jeremy was texting her as he was walking away from the party around to the front. But instead, he was stopped by a certain vampire that had not been a part of the plan.

"Claire?" Jeremy asked aloud. She smiled sourly and put her hands on her hips.

"Where are Stefan and Damon?"

The male teenager didn't want to spill any part of their plan in fear of getting the wrath from Damon and Stefan on the matter. But Claire was growing impatient with every second he spent avoiding the question and, when Bonnie finally joined them, they both realized they had no choice.

"All right!" Claire snapped and held up her hands at the two of them. She looked between the two breakable humans. "You get _one _chance to tell me what the hell is going on _right _now or I'm storming that mansion like it's D-Day, are we clear?"

Bonnie let out a sigh and finally caved in. "We're trying to kill Katherine."

Claire hesitated. "Here? Now?"

"We saw an opportunity and knew we had to take it."

She scoffed. "You mean those two _idiots _saw an opportunity and _no one _decided to inform me of this god awful decision! You're all insane! She's going to murder every last one of you and then _I'm _going to end up alone, standing on top of your dead bodies! This is exactly what she wants!"

"We've got this under control, Claire," Bonnie assured her. Her eyes widened alarmingly.

"Under control? Under _control_? I used to think I was a pretty decent badass but then Katherine Pierce ended up ruining my _marriage_ and managed to hurt someone else in the process!" She looked over at Jeremy. "_Your _aunt, Jeremy! Elena's aunt. You all don't get it! I've been trying to help you guys and you just throw it back in my face! You have no idea what you signed up for!"

"She has to be stopped," Jeremy told her. "Before she goes after you again or after one of us. It's only a matter of time before she strikes again but if we kill her, that's it. This can all be over."

Claire scoffed and crossed her arms. "It's never over. Not with Katherine."

* * *

Katherine had Caroline roughly by the strands of her golden hair, pulling her upstairs with her furiously as she searched endlessly for the moonstone that Bonnie seemed to have. Caroline whimpered.

"Why do you keep dragging me into this? I don't want any part of it!"

"Shut up!" Katherine snapped at her. Finally, they came to a stop at the stairs and Katherine looked around at the various rooms where Caroline had led her. "Which room is it?"

Caroline sniffed and jerked her head to the one in front of them. "That one."

Still pulling Caroline by her hair, Katherine barged into the room at the top of the stairs and Caroline stopped right at the threshold while Katherine sauntered inside, looking around for the witch in question. With Katherine's back turned to Caroline, she asked, "Where is she?"

Then, Katherine started to hear something strange. Instead of Caroline's girlish, pleading, pathetic little cry, she started to laugh. When the dark-haired vampire turned around, she saw Caroline smiling and laughing at her like she had just pulled a trick. This, naturally, had Katherine's suspicions at an all-time high.

"I did it," Caroline whispered, impressed with herself. "I _really _didn't think that I'd be able to fool…you but I did it."

Angered, Katherine flew at the younger vampire with all of her strength, only to get knocked back by the invisible shield surrounding the room, sealing it off with magic. Caroline stood tall, unmoving, as Katherine stumbled back and hissed.

"What the…?" Caroline smiled and put a hand on her hip, causing Katherine to sigh heavily and realize. "Stefan."

She turned around, where Stefan was indeed waiting for her. "Hello, Katherine."

"Goodbye, Katherine," Caroline chimed with a wave before heading down the hall to get out of the crossfire. Katherine and Stefan were left, facing each other from across the room. He held up a wooden stake in his hand, waving it as a consolation prize, while Katherine sauntered further inside, seeing as there was no other way to go.

"You don't really think that you can kill me with that now, do you?"

"No," Stefan admitted. "But he can."

Damon opened the closet door behind Katherine and used the air compressor to shoot a wooden stake right at her back, aiming at—but barely missing—her heart.

* * *

"This has gone on long enough," Claire objected, looking between the witch and the young Gilbert. She looked up at the Lockwood mansion. "Where are they?"

"Inside," Jeremy told her. "Probably dealing with Katherine."

"Fine," Claire barked. "Then take me—"

Before she was able to finish her sentence, there was a sharp shooting pain right in the dead center of her back as if she'd been staked. A cry escaped her mouth without reason, but she could feel the blood start to pool underneath her leather jacket and unfortunately stain her white silk shirt. As she let out her scream, Jeremy and Bonnie rushed forward.

"Claire?"

"What is it?" Bonnie urged. Claire tried to keep herself stable, but the pain in her back was unbearable. Her legs buckled beneath her at the pain and she doubled over on her knees.

"Someone _staked _me!" she growled through short breaths. Jeremy looked behind her and shook is head.

"Claire, there's no one else here. There's no stake in your back, either."

* * *

Damon's shot had missed, but that wasn't the last of it. Amelia came out from the closet right behind Damon with her own weapon in hand, but Stefan got to Katherine first. As she stumbled from the shock of the first attack, he plunged the stake in his hand in her right arm to prolong her pain. Katherine cried aloud as blood started to spill from the injury.

* * *

And there it was again—a phantom pain. This time, Claire felt it in her right arm as if a stake had penetrated her skin although there was no one around to do it and no evidence at all of its piercing. Blood started to seep through her jacket and it spilled down her arm, rolling right over her fingertips onto the blades of grass beneath her feet. Bonnie and Jeremy looked at each other out of confusion as Claire whimpered at the pain.

"I don't know what's happening…" Bonnie stuttered, at a loss. Claire groaned.

"I'm not…I'm not _healing_," she complained, trying not to focus on her pain too much. But without her healing abilities the injuries were becoming much worse. She screamed at the two of them, "What the hell is going on?"

Suddenly, Bonnie realized as she looked up at the Lockwood mansion and remembered what was happening. It all seemed very simple: a spell.

"Jeremy!" Bonnie caught his attention. "She's linked to Katherine. Get them to stop. Now!"

The teenager rose from his knees to go stop Stefan and Damon but Claire stopped him first. "Gilbert! Hey, Gilbert! Don't you dare walk away from me!" She forced herself up on her feet though the pain from her back was practically paralyzing. With slow breaths, she growled, "Get me the _hell _upstairs! Now!"

* * *

Stefan pulled the stake out of Katherine's shoulder and moved forward again to hurt her once more. Instead, Katherine stopped him and shoved him back so that he fell on top of a coffee table, inevitably breaking the wood off into pieces. As he stumbled back, Damon yanked his own stake out of Katherine's back and struck down at her, only making her more furious. She shoved him back against the wall and then Amelia was after her.

The young blonde vampire managed to put a stake in Katherine's chest, but it was too off-center to be near her heart. Katherine pushed Amelia back and the youngest King went flying right into the couch where it was easy enough to recoil. Katherine yanked the stake out of her chest and tossed it to the ground while Stefan pressed the trigger in his sleeve to release another wooden stake to throw at Katherine. She ducked it the first time; but the second time, she grabbed it in mid-air and changed its course so that it went flying at Stefan.

He ducked and the two brothers were up on their feet, standing against Katherine. Amelia, too, recoiled from the couch and faced the dark-haired vampire. It was three against one.

Damon tried first this time, flying at her just to have her push back at him and toss him somewhere else. He grabbed a stake on the floor and swung it at her, but she caught his hand and flipped the stake so that Damon's wrist was bent totally backwards and the point of the stake was at his chest. He struggled with her strength, but Amelia came to his rescue. She shoved Katherine back into Stefan's arms and Stefan put her in a headlock, wrapping his arm around her neck to cut off circulation. They struggled so hard they fell back onto the floor where Katherine gasped greatly for air, but as she did so, Damon was already back on his feet with a stake in his hand.

He went straight to her, the stake high in the air ready to be the weapon that killed Katherine Pierce. But right as he was about to swing the stake down, there was a scream.

"Damon, don't!" Claire choked out.

All three opposing vampires looked up to see Jeremy holding Claire up with one arm around his shoulders as they came to a dead stop in front of the threshold. Stefan, Damon, and Amelia all stared at Claire and eyed the blood that dripped off her fingertips and the injuries that were exposed.

"Everything you're doing to her is hurting Claire. And she's not healing," Jeremy explained to them as he struggled to keep Claire upright, though she was clearly choking from the hold that Stefan had on Katherine at the moment. Stefan released his tight choke, allowing Claire and Katherine to breathe. Damon got off of Katherine and stepped away while Katherine, satisfied with her backup plan, jumped up from the ground.

"You think you two are the only ones with a witch on your side?" she asked. "Wrong. Something tells me that my witch is better than your witch."

Katherine snatched the stake from Damon's hand and started to play with it as she walked away from the vampires that were just trying to kill her. Claire sighed heavily, but she was feeling terribly weak, which she despised. She swallowed thickly.

"Jeremy, just give me a little shove," Claire told him. Damon moved forward.

"No, you can't. If you come inside, you can't go back out. It's a spell," he told her. She glanced up at him with unamused, irritated pupils.

"Well, it doesn't really matter, does it, Damon?" she snapped and looked over at Katherine. "Whatever you do to her in there will happen to me out here so why don't we just make it easy on ourselves?"

With a grunt, she pushed herself forward and stumbled through the threshold of the room. Damon flashed over to her and caught her as she staggered, holding her upright. While Stefan yelled at Jeremy to get out of the vicinity of the room, Damon's hands went up and moved the top of Claire's leather jacket down, where he saw the unhealed wound from Stefan's earlier stab in the arm. She turned her head and winced as he hissed.

"Damn it. Are you okay?"

Katherine snorted. "Let's all make sure poor Clarissa's okay." Her chocolate eyes drifted up to met Claire's as she held the stake over her hand. "Just a _little _bit more pressure…"

The stake split the skin in her hand, creating a trail of blood along both Claire and Katherine's right hand. Immediately after the wound was created, Amelia snatched the stake out of Katherine's hand so that it was out of her reach for any further damage. Claire groaned at the unimaginable pain and clenched her fist so tight that blood inevitably dripped onto Damon's jacket sleeve. She cried out helplessly and Damon looked over at Katherine with a furious expression.

"That's enough, Katherine!" Damon growled. At the moment, Claire couldn't care less who was holding her upright or defending her, even if it happened to be Damon. It'd been a while since she'd felt so much pain and it hadn't gone away in seconds.

Katherine whipped around and grabbed another stake that was lying around before anyone could get to it. She smiled sadistically.

"This is _really _gonna hurt!" she announced as she braced to plunge the wooden stake right into her abdomen. Claire's eyes went as wide as the moon.

"Wait!" Stefan cried out, stopping Katherine from doing anything else. Katherine didn't let the stake pierce her skin, making Claire give a relieving sigh to release the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding in, anxiously awaiting the pain. A small smile spread across Katherine's red lips.

"Okay." She sat down on the couch. "So, how about that moonstone?"

No one answered her question. Damon moved Claire from his arms to Amelia's, who promptly set the bleeding, angrily weak Claire down on the couch beside Katherine. Katherine only shifted a little to make room from Claire; all while harboring a stink look on her face in disgust for the blonde vampire. Claire shrugged off her jacket in distaste for the leather being soaked with her blood, and she desperately tried to keep pressure on her wounds so that they wouldn't hurt as bad. Damon tested the threshold of the room, determining how hard it would be to make an escape.

"The four of us together, just like old times." Katherine looked at Claire with loathing. "The goodie-two-shoes everyone fawned over." She looked up at Damon. "The brother who loved me too much…" Her gaze drifted towards Stefan, "…and the one that didn't love me enough."

"And the evil slut vampire who only loved herself," Damon added.

Katherine sighed, frustrated. "What happened to you, Damon? You used to be so sweet and polite."

"Oh, that Damon died a _long _time ago."

"Good. He was a bore."

"Oh, why don't you two stop antagonizing each other?" Stefan crossed his arms and looked down at Katherine. "You're starting to sound like Claire in one of her fights with Damon."

Claire scoffed, slightly offended. "Please. I'm much more inventive with my witty remarks."

"Where's the moonstone?" Katherine interrupted, finished playing games with them for once. Instead of an answer, Stefan replied with a question.

"What do you want with it?"

Katherine bit down on her cheek, staring at both brothers for a while before finally turning her head to look over at the two blonde vampires who were sitting uncomfortably close to her.

"Do the two of you _enjoy _having these two worship at your altar?" Katherine teased quietly, smirking in the slightest. The two pairs of siblings looked at each other and started to laugh.

Stefan spoke first. "That was really _desperate, _Katherine."

"Really, _really _desperate," Amelia added, scoffing. "I mean, wow. I don't know if that was meant to come off as jealous or sad…"

"There's never been any 'worshipping', Katherine," Claire snapped at her, tired of messing around. "We're all friends who share a common disinterest…which is you."

"Sure." Katherine got up from the couch and started towards Damon. "Friends. You know, you are all _such _bad liars!" She turned around fast so that she faced everyone as they headed off at her.

"Are we really going to sit here and pretend like there's nothing else going on? That Amelia and Stefan aren't falling head over heels in love with each other like they're children again?" Her gaze drifted to Damon and Claire. "Or that Claire and Damon haven't been completely _desperate _for each other since their parents set their wedding date as children?"

Katherine surveyed them all and chuckled. "You're all lying to yourselves, each and every one of you. And you call _me _sad." The room went silent as the four of them avoided eye contact with each other, refusing to give into Katherine's mind games. Katherine caught Damon's glance and she gasped. "Here's an idea: kiss me, Damon. We all know how badly you want Claire. Everything I feel, she does. So kiss me."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but Katherine's lips just curled up into a smile. Desperate to change the subject, Stefan moved on.

"You know, this whole Mason thing has me a bit confused. Why a werewolf? The moonstone can break a curse that would help them destroy all vampires so…what's in that for you?" he asked her. Katherine fell silent until Damon spoke up.

"Sorry about your pet wolf," he apologized, not so apologetic about it. "You should've kept him on a tighter leash…"

"I'll have to remember that for next time," Katherine bit at him. "He's not the only wolf in town." No one responded to her ambiguous comment, but Katherine turned around and sat right back down on the couch. She sighed heavily and glanced up at Amelia. "You know, I was quite surprised you were a part of all this."

Amelia laughed. "Nice try, Katherine. But I know you found out that I was helping Claire."

Katherine shrugged. "Sure, I knew about it. But I didn't say I didn't know about it, I just said I was surprised. All those years of loyalty and you just…threw them down the drain. For someone you hardly know."

"I'm her _sister, _Katherine!" Claire retorted.

Katherine frowned. "Well, from what I've heard, you're actually _not." _The dark-haired vampire's eyes drifted up to meet Amelia's. "But you don't have to be sisters to share the bond you and I have, Amelia. You and I are closer to being family than you and Claire will ever be. Believe it or not, I'm really disappointed you decided to choose her over me."

"You're never disappointed over anything, Katherine," Amelia protested. "You can find someone else to do your dirty work."

"It wasn't about _dirty work_!" Katherine shouted. "It was about loyalty. About having a friend."

"And that friend just happened to be my sister." Claire stood up now, finally fed up with sitting around Katherine and listening to her complain about being alone. When she got up on two feet, though, Claire faltered for a moment with her balance but, aided by Stefan, finally got herself under control. She applied more pressure to her shoulder as she spoke. "I'm so _sick _of you taking everything from me, Katherine. You waltzed into Mystic Falls back in 1864 and took Damon and Stefan away, you tricked my sister into being your little bitch, and you managed to drive my husband out of town after telling him something that was none of your business at all! And on top of all that, you almost killed an innocent bystander. What is your sick, twisted infatuation with destroying me, Katherine?"

Katherine rose from her seat, seething. "You want to know why I _loathe _you, Clarissa? Because your family, the people that hold themselves in such high regards, they're nothing but _filth. _Spoiled, rotten little girls and boys that don't deserve to be looked at—not even once. And they call themselves _Kings_." She scoffed, repulsed.

She had gotten so close that she managed to make Claire stagger back and fall into the chair adjacent to the couch, although Claire didn't show any expression of shame or bother at all. Stefan, Amelia, and Damon watched as the fight unfolded and recoiled, causing Katherine to walk back to her seat on the couch firmly and look up at all of them.

"Get me the moonstone. Now."

They mostly sat in silence for a while after the blowout between Claire and Katherine, but eventually, as Damon tried to test the threshold once again out of impatience, Damon hissed to himself, "Damn it! Where's that witch?"

"We could play charades," Katherine suggested in a lighter tone as she walked around the couch, still holding the wooden stake in her hand.

"The moonstone…" Amelia trailed off to herself, thinking. "The moonstone…the moonstone…you bargained the moonstone!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her seat on the couch.

Damon turned around. "Come again, Blondie?"

Amelia gasped and looked Katherine in the eye. "You told me the story a _million _times! When you struck a deal with George Lockwood to help fake your death in the church, you said you gave him something that he needed. It was the moonstone!"

Katherine smiled. "Good for you, Amelia. Way to defeat the stereotype. And it would've worked, except that people found out I wasn't in the tomb." She looked back at Damon. "Thanks to you, by the way. Have I mentioned how inconvenient your obsession with me has been?"

"You and me both, honey," Damon deadpanned before pulling his recently acquired glass of bourbon to his lips. Katherine narrowed her eyes at him playfully when Stefan spoke behind her.

"Why do you…why do you need it back?"

She turned around at him slowly, but didn't answer the question. "I _love _you in a suit. So dashing."

His voice was softer now. "What were you doing with it in the first place?"

"You're wasting your breath, Stefan," Damon warned.

"Unless…it wasn't yours to begin with." Katherine peered up at him, caught, with a small smirk. "In 1864, you faked your death. Who were you running from, Katherine?"

"I'm thinking her street rat vampire pimp," Claire commented aloud as she drank from her own bourbon glass that Damon had graciously provided for her. Her wounds were starting to get better, but they were still sore and hurt like hell. Before drinking, she mumbled, "She's got to make money somehow, right?"

"Street rat? Pimp?" Damon tsked. "Nah. She wouldn't go that cheap. I'm thinking high-end escort business. Some kind of deadbeat, horny corporate stockbroker."

Claire snapped her fingers and pointed at him in agreement. "Right on!"

Katherine looked between the blonde-haired King and the dark-haired Salvatore. "You two are much more cruel united than apart," she noted.

Claire grinned. "Must mean we're _desperate _for each other, right?"

As Katherine and Claire kept locked eye contact, Damon snickered to himself and walked around to fix himself another glass of bourbon, all while grabbing Claire's glass as well to refill hers. Katherine just gave Claire a sour smile and walked over to the window, where she longingly looked out to all the human guess enjoying themselves. Damon poured Claire's glass and handed it over to Amelia to hand to her sister and then set to work on his own. Katherine sighed.

"We're missing the party," she complained as Damon refilled his cup. Seeing the strong alcohol, she requested, "I'll have one of those."

"Right away, Miss Katherine," Damon taunted as he poured another glass for his ex. She walked around him and grabbed the bourbon from his hand.

"Thank you."

After one sip, everything fell silent. Katherine relished the taste of the strong alcohol and sighed to herself, but then she was taken off guard. Claire had flashed over to her in an instant, disregarding the pain in her body from the earlier wounds that had yet to heal. Katherine's glass dropped to the ground and Claire held a stake right up to Katherine's heart, ready to pierce skin.

"Give me one good reason not to drive this through your heart right now, you vile little bitch," Claire snarled at Katherine.

Katherine spat, "You'd die, too."

"I know." Claire nodded. "But it's _so _worth it!"

"Claire, stop," Damon argued as he came up behind her and pulled her arm back as she ached to plunge the stake right into Katherine's chest cavity. "It'll kill you. Put it down! The second this spell is lifted, I promise, _I_ will drive it right through her heart."

Things were silent for a very long time as Claire stared at Katherine with ice-cold blue eyes. Katherine wasn't at all afraid that Claire was going to kill her, but there was a single seed of doubt that sprouted from Claire's absolute seriousness about a murder/suicide. Finally, Claire backed away, letting Damon take the stake from her hand.

"You're a coward, Katherine," Claire said quietly, biting the inside of her cheek. "You hide behind your spells and your slaves but one day—and there _will _be a day—when there won't be anyone to save you. Where _you _will be all alone because of everything you've done and everyone you've hurt."

Katherine didn't seem fazed. "Oh, how prophetic of you." She shoved past Claire and filed next to Damon, surveying him for a moment before practically moaning, "_God, _you're hot. When did you get so hot?"

He didn't respond, and she moved past him just as quickly as she said the words. Claire and Damon watched as Katherine moved along and towards the couch, but as she did, there was another voice.

"Katherine." Everyone in the room looked to the door to see a tall, slender, attractive woman in black enter the room with the moonstone in her hand. "The spell in this room has been broken, you're free to leave."

Katherine's witch, obviously, had Katherine overjoyed. The dark-haired vampire let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

The witch extended the moonstone to her. "When I hand this over, my debt to you is over."

"Done."

"I owe you nothing."

"I said done. Give it," Katherine demanded.

"I wouldn't do that!" Damon protested behind her, anxiously hoping that the witch would realize how much of a terrible decision it would be to give Katherine the moonstone. But, unfortunately, the witch turned over the moonstone right into Katherine's palm. Katherine enclosed it in her fist, but suddenly, she started to choke. Claire, Amelia, Stefan, and Damon just watched while Katherine gasped for air.

"You should've told me another witch was involved. She's a Bennett witch, Katherine, but I'm sure you knew that," the witch chastised the choking vampire.

Stefan looked back at Claire but still shouted, "Wait…what about Claire?"

"She's fine." The witch looked back at the blonde in the room. "Aren't you?" Claire nodded slowly. "Your wounds will start healing soon now that the spell is broken. The spell I had on you delayed your healing ability but you should be fine within the hour. I apologize for my involvement."

And the witch left Katherine gasping on the floor until the evil slut vampire finally was rendered unconscious with the moonstone by her side.

* * *

Stefan found Amelia standing and observing the lake at the back of the Lockwood property. Damon took Katherine away and everyone else was starting to head home. It was when Stefan started to walk to the car when he remembered Amelia and went out to look for her. When he found her, he sighed and walked up to her side.

"I would say it's a beautiful night…" Stefan trailed off. Amelia, seeing his presence, laughed quietly.

"It is, but…it's definitely been a long one." The two stood in silence, overlooking the lake and its peacefulness for just a moment before she spoke again. "So we finally got her."

"We finally got her," Stefan repeated. He snuck a glance at the blonde vampire beside him. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" Amelia caught his gaze and shrugged. "Yeah. I'm fine. I was just thinking about…you know, things."

"The things Katherine said to you in there?" Stefan prompted, being able to read his friend like an open book. "About being a disappointment to her?" Amelia said nothing. "Amelia, it's _Katherine. _She has no right to be judging everyone else when—"

"Not what she said about me." Amelia shook her head slowly, trying to process what she was thinking as she repeated Katherine's words in her minds. "Though they did kind of hurt, though. Well, that's what you get when you double-cross your sire. Nothing good can come from that."

Stefan scoffed. "If that's the case, then we all double-crossed our sire. Katherine turned all four of us." Amelia laughed, realizing the truth in that statement. But still seeing her distress, Stefan pushed, "Then what'd she say that bothered you?"

"It was what she said…" The teenager swallowed for a moment, trying to come up with the right words. She turned to Stefan at last and sighed. "It was what she said about…about _us_. She was right, Stefan. I am kind of…"

The two teenagers stared at each other in silence. Stefan opened his mouth to say something, probably to prompt her to continue, but Amelia just reached forward, grabbed the collar on his suit, and pulled him close enough so that his lips crashed onto hers. Stefan was most definitely surprised by the kiss, his eyes wide open at first. Some part of him felt it was wrong, so soon after breaking up with Elena. But then he remembered why and he realized that he owed it to himself to try. So he kissed Amelia back with his regular tense form until she finally released him from her hold and sighed blissfully.

"Jesus, that was fantastic," Amelia breathed out once she opened her eyes. Stefan couldn't resist a smile as she looked up at him with wild grey eyes. "Was that fantastic for you? It was fantastic for me. I've been wanting to do that for a while now."

Stefan snickered. "Do you always talk so much?"

Amelia nodded. "Uh huh. It's not really a vampire thing, it's more of a—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Stefan leaned forward and kissed her, cutting her right in the middle of the explanation. Amelia, too, was shocked, but like Stefan she came to accept it and kissed back. She melted in it, in fact. After a while of soft, heavenly kissing, they pulled away just far enough so that their foreheads were touching.

"Probably the best way to shut me up," Amelia agreed. Stefan smiled.

* * *

She felt covered in filth. The air around her seemed compact and unfiltered, as if she were breathing in particles that were impure. Katherine woke gasping and choking underground. Her fingers dug deep into soil around her, and the cool surface of a moonstone rested beneath her fingertips. She enclosed her fingers around it and finally forced herself up from the dirt floor. Though weak, she managed to pull herself all the way to the exit of the underground hell she was placed in, only to be stopped—once again—by a magic barrier. Katherine fought, desperately trying to get out of the cave she was trapped in all alone.

Then she saw something—or, rather, someone.

Damon emerged in the moonlight that hit the bottom of the tomb and he watched her as she struggled.

"Hello, Katherine."

She paused. "Where am I?"

"Where you should've been all along. I thought you would've learned your lesson by now messing with a Bennett witch," he admitted to her sadly. She shook her head at him.

"You should've killed me."

"Death would've been too kind," he spat. The two went silent as Damon stepped forward towards the tomb door so that he could slide it back in place and seal Katherine's fate for however long she lived. But Katherine's protests were obvious.

"No! Damon, don't!" she begged. "Damon, don't. You need me! The doppelgänger—_Elena—_is in danger!"

Damon hesitated. "From who?" Silence. Damon realized quickly what her game was, her angle. He shook his head. "You're lying. You're always lying."

"She is!" Katherine yelled. "She is, Damon, she is! She's the doppelgänger, she needs to be protected And Claire…Claire probably is in danger, too. Why do you think I haven't killed her yet?"

"Because you wanted to make her suffer. You've told her that."

"No." Katherine choked on her own fear. "No, I was lying then. I-I mean…I _do _want to make her suffer, but she can be useful. Besides, she's a King. They're the strongest."

"Strongest?" Damon repeated. Katherine said no more, shaking visibly with the fear of him closing the doors on her. Finally, he shook his head. "Lies. More lies, Katherine. I'm not listening to you this time. You killed her once, you'll do it again. I'll protect Elena _and _Claire, if I have to—while you rot in hell."

"No!" Katherine shouted. "Damon, don't! I'll do anything! Please, Damon! You need me! Damon! You need me!"

But he shut the door on her, all while hearing her incessant shouts and cries of importance. And while she cried, Damon stood on the other side of the door and listened, but once he knew it was time to go, he knew it was time to leave her to her eternity of misery.

He didn't once hesitate to leave her.

* * *

"I'm gonna go take the pizza box out to the garbage," Elena told Alaric and Jenna as she unlocked the front door with the pizza box tucked under her arm. "You guys have anything else you want me to throw out while I'm out there?"

"We're good!" Alaric told her. Hearing him decline her offer, Elena walked out and went down her porch and down the walkway to the garbage bins in the front that were on the curb awaiting the garbage trucks in the morning. She put the pizza box into the correct bin and dusted her hands off just before turning around on her heel to go back into the house. But just as she did, a man in a mask appeared in front of her and placed his hand over her mouth, muffling her protests so no one could hear as he dragged her away, kicking and screaming.

* * *

"Bitch ruined a six hundred dollar custom shirt from Madrid," Claire mumbled to herself as she walked to her car in the midst of cars among the driveway circling the Lockwood house. She was grumpy and irritated and desperately needed blood. "Oh, no big deal. I'll just fly to Madrid in the morning and find the daughter of the man who made it because the man who made it is _dead_! Not like this was a one-of-a-kind shirt or anything! Nooo. Because that would just be cruel."

As she mumbled and complained to herself over her shitty day, Claire clicked the button on her keys to unlock her car and she climbed inside, shaking her head. Blood covered the white shirt, making it virtually impossible for her to get the stains out. She wanted to kick herself for wearing a white shirt, but what was the point of owning one if you couldn't wear it?

With a frustrated sigh, she put her hand on the gearshift to kick the car in drive and get home for some much-needed rest. Instead, just as she moved to put the car in drive, she sensed another presence in the car. Claire froze, but there was nothing that could be done when her uninvited guest used one hand to cover her mouth and the other to plunge a needle into her arm. Claire bit and chomped at the hand, but once the vervain was inside of her system, there was nothing else she could do. Eventually, she felt it when her eyes rolled back into her head and it fell limp.

And behind her, clearly seen in the rearview mirror, was a woman with a triumphant smile.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please!**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thanks!

**grapejuice101: **Nope. Definitely not Claire's day. Actually, not Claire's year...because she's been having a pretty shitty year and I suspect that won't get any better.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Yeah, I know. We all feel pretty bad for Claire :(

**Bella lugosi: **Haha yep Katherine was pretty bitchy in that episode. Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

**Savage Kill: **I would tell you right now if I didn't have plans to reveal that exact information in another 2 episodes. You'll get your answer in 2x09 as to why Katherine _really _hates Claire...but like I've said before, it's more of a complicated answer than just a straight one. "Emotional" isn't really Claire's thing, kind of like we saw in this episode. It's more...anger than anything. Thanks for reviewing!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Aw thanks! I actually really appreciate that comment. Makes me feel like I'm doing something right for a change. Yep, I'm trying to make Elena's character better than she is in the show so I don't have to write a character I don't agree with. I'm slowly making improvements. Thanks for reviewing!

**TVD2014: **You may get your wish sooner than you think! Thanks!


	22. Rose

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Rose**

As the morning sun reigned brightly above in the midst of a pale blue sky, a black SUV moved off of an abandoned main road to pull into a side road. A heavily tinted smaller vehicle waited patiently for its presence, and upon the SUV's halt beside the car, a man climbed out of the passenger side and went up to the SUV. The darkened window rolled down just far enough for the man to see the other man's sunglasses and cap.

"Where is she?" asked the owner of the SUV.

"In the trunk," said the other man. "I did exactly what you said."

"Good. Put her in the back."

The man moved away from the SUV to the trunk of the car, where his companion inside of the car popped the trunk and allowed the man to take the unconscious human teenager in his arms. The man transferred Elena from the car to the truck in a matter of minutes before walking back to the owner of the SUV.

"Thank you for your help."

"Is there anything else?"

"One more thing. Come closer. Please." The man stepped forward into the shadow of the SUV as the owner of the vehicle rolled down his window less conservatively. He beckoned the other man. "Closer…"

And the minute the man was close enough, the vampire inside the vehicle attacked the man's neck with his fangs, tearing into the human flesh. The vampire sucked every last drop of blood out of the man's body until the human fell down onto the gravel beside the truck, dead. The vampire in the vehicle wiped his mouth free of blood as the driver in the smaller car rolled down her window and surveyed the damage, all while staying out of the light.

She looked up at the other vampire, though it was not visible through her blacked-out sunglasses. "Was that entirely necessary?"

"No," the other vampire confessed. From inside the passenger car, the female vampire let out a frustrated sigh.

"Rose won't be happy."

"Rose won't have to know." The SUV owner paused. "Besides, she won't be happy you decided to take your own initiative, either."

The female vampire turned and looked in her back seat at the unconscious Claire King who rested across all three seats in the back. She turned back to the male vampire and shrugged.

"She'll make an exception."

And the two cars pulled out of the side road and headed back on the main road again.

* * *

"So Sarah _attacks_ Tyler and he pushed her away and she tripped…and she fell, and she hit her head."

Caroline glanced up at Damon through the mirror she was applying her makeup into, watching his expression as she told him the truth. Damon frowned.

"Does Matt remember anything?"

Caroline applied her lip-gloss and shook her head. "He thinks he blacked out." Damon slowly nodded. "But _I _think they were both compelled by Katherine. That's why I covered for Tyler and said it was an accident."

"Yeah, I don't understand that. The guy's a tool."

"Well, gee, _duh_!" Caroline exclaimed as she started to put her shoes on. "Tyler getting blamed for Sarah's death just opens up questions that he can't answer. And do you really think it's a good idea for him to tell his mom he's a…werewolf?"

Damon smirked. "Well, no."

She scoffed. "And that werewolf road leads straight to vampire boulevard! I thought I was thinking fast on my feet."

"Where's your mom?" He changed the subject.

"Leading the search party for Aimee Bradley," Caroline answered as she wrapped her scarf around her neck. "They haven't found her body yet."

"Oh, teens today and their underage drinking…" Damon sighed disappointedly. "Tragic. Wait. Did you see Tyler's eyes turn yellow?"

"More…gold with amber highlights." The dark-haired Salvatore let out a groan. "Can he turn into a wolf now?"

"Only on a full moon," Damon grumbled. "But now he has increased strength and who knows what else. I wonder how much Mason told him. Does he know about us?" But Caroline wasn't listening to him; she was texting on her phone. "Hey! What'd you tell him?"

"Nothing…really," she replied. "I-I don't think he knows much of anything! He seemed…reallyfreaked out and…honestly, I felt kinda bad for him."

The compassionate Caroline sighed and brushed past Damon, who was incredulous upon hearing the words out of her mouth. He turned and followed her out of her room to the hallway.

"He's gotta know something," Damon argued.

"All right! I'll ask him."

Before Caroline was able to get out of the house and go to school, Damon flitted over to her and stopped the blonde right in her tracks. He pulled her collar close and growled, "No, you won't Caroline! He _cannot _know about us. A bite from a werewolf can kill a vampire so don't be his friend! Do you understand me?"

"I understand," she agreed meekly. Avoiding his eyes, she attempted to get out of his grasp with a weak, "I'm late for school."

"Right." Damon smiled and released his hold on her collar with a reassuring pat to her shoulders. Caroline sighed.

"And…where's Claire, anyway?" she asked, frustrated. "I tried to call her first but she wouldn't pick up."

Damon shrugged. "If I had a dollar for every time that one disappeared on me…all I know is that her phone is at home and she didn't come back last night." He moved towards the door and opened it for the young vampire. "If you want to drop the hint to your mom that Aimee's body is at the bottom of a ravine with a cracked spine, it might save your mom some time."

He smirked at her and held the door open so that Caroline could step outside and he followed.

* * *

"Excuse me." There was a tap on Stefan's shoulder in the hallway, and upon feeling it, the kind teenager closed his locker and turned around. "Can you tell me where to find Mr. Saltzman's History class next period?"

But instead of some run-of-the-mill Mystic Falls High student, when Stefan turned around to face the newcomer, his eyes seemed to deceive him. Stefan scoffed in disbelief as his mouth practically dropped to the floor.

"Amelia!" he exclaimed, surprised. She gave him an innocent smile. "What the…what are you doing here?"

Amelia shrugged. "Well, I've never really tried the whole 'being normal' thing," she admitted with a grin. "Besides, I figured it was a nice way to get to spend some time with you. School seems to take up a lot of time." Stefan smiled, but for some reason, Amelia felt it was forced. Her smile instantly dropped. "What's wrong? Did you not want me here or something?"

"No!" Stefan protested as they started to walk in the direction of the hallway. "No! I think it's great. I really do."

Amelia laughed. "Good. Because I sure as hell can tell you I'm not here to learn about history."

Stefan scoffed. "Trust me, it's more entertaining if you engage in the class. Otherwise, you'll find yourself dozing off."

"I already see myself dozing off." Amelia grinned at Stefan for a moment and then sighed. "Okay, but I actually have to go to the office and compel my way out of some forms first. I'll see you in class?"

Stefan nodded at her and watched her walk away, but as he started to walk in the direction of the crowd flow to their first class, Jeremy came up beside him. Stefan smiled at the kid Gilbert. "Hey, Jeremy."

"Look, Elena's got to let me know if I'm supposed to cover for her," he chastised Stefan. "Jenna's cool with the two of you but you guys are pushing it."

"What are you talking about?"

"You and Elena. Look, I'm glad you guys are back together but if she's gonna sleep over…"

Stefan pulled them to a stop in the middle of the hallway shaking his head. "Wait, wait…hold on a minute. We're not back together."

Jeremy paused. "Wait…she didn't...she didn't stay at your place last night?"

Stefan shook his head again. "No. I haven't even seen her since volunteering at the Lockwood mansion. She hasn't slept over since we broke up."

"'Cause her bed hadn't been slept in and her car's still at the house…" Jeremy trailed off, confused. The two teenagers stared at each other for a while before Jeremy asked, "Where is she, then?"

Stefan hesitated. "I…I don't know. It's…weird, too, because Claire didn't come back to the boarding house last night, either."

Amelia stepped out of the office with a sigh, only to run right into Jeremy and Stefan. She looked at them both and gave a small smile. "Oh. I thought you'd already be at class." The two of them said nothing to her, causing her to frown. "Is something wrong?"

Stefan turned to the blonde vampire. "Have you talked to Claire today?"

* * *

Claire stirred groggily as the effects of the substantial vervain injection started to wear off and allowed her to return to a state of consciousness. Her eyes were blurry and her head felt dizzy for a moment before she was finally restored to the sharp, alert vision and sense that a vampire had. She looked around and found herself in a room that looked old and cracked as if it were run-down. It took her a moment, but she finally realized that she was sitting upright in a wooden chair and that her hands, as well as her feet, were strapped to the arms and legs of the seat. She struggled, but the ropes were soaked in vervain. She let out a cry when they burned her skin.

"Good." Claire looked up to find someone entering the room from the farthest entrance. The room might've been worn-down, but it was huge. It resembled the structure of a ballroom. "You're awake."

"Where the hell am I?" she murmured aloud. Her captor walked forward, heels clicking on the old hardwood floors. "Who are you?"

There was a gust of wind and, in a matter of seconds, Claire realized exactly who she was dealing with. It took just a moment, but she was never one to forget a face—especially not the face of someone from the deepest, darkest depths of her past.

"Delia?" Claire whispered brokenly.

* * *

"This has Katherine written all over it," Stefan argued against Damon as the two brothers stood outside of Mystic Falls High next to Damon's car in the parking lot. Damon shook his head.

"Katherine's in the tomb. Trust me; I'm the one who shut her in."

"Did you?"

"Did I what, Stefan?"

"Well, I know the hold that Katherine has on you…" Stefan trailed off. Damon looked at his brother with disbelieving eyes.

"She's in the tomb! Period. End of story," the older brother barked. Stefan turned and started to pace, thinking of all the possibilities where Claire and Elena could've gone or been taken. Suddenly, Damon mumbled, "But she did say something to me right before I shut her in…" Stefan turned back as Damon whispered to himself, "I thought she was lying!"

"What'd she say?" Stefan urged.

Damon looked up. "Elena's in danger. Claire, too—possibly."

Stefan's eyes practically popped out of his head. "What, and you didn't think you should ask her to elaborate?"

"Everything she says is a lie!" Damon exclaimed. "How am I supposed to know if she's gonna start spouting out the truth?"

"We have to go talk to her," the bronze-haired vampire demanded. Damon shook his head.

"No, no. Let me tell you how that's gonna go. We're gonna go ask her for help, she's gonna negotiate her release, which we're gonna be _dumb enough _to give her, and then she's gonna get out! And kill us! That's exactly what she wants!"

Stefan threw his hands up. "I don't really care."

"It's a bad idea, Stefan…" Damon warned.

Stefan turned back at his brother and pointed at him accusingly. "It's Claire."

* * *

The brown-haired, medium-sized, olive-skinned vampire smiled down at her prisoner, causing Claire to swallow thickly. "Well, well. You _do _remember me. I had a bet going with Trevor. Guess I owe him one free meal."

Claire didn't say anything. She just stiffened in her chair and clenched her fists tightly, despite the pain that came from the vervain-soaked ropes. Delia bent down. "Nothing to say? There's a first. And here I was thinking you were known for that opinionated little mouth of yours that just won't stop spewing insults."

"What would you like me to say, Delia?" Claire shot furiously, trying but failing not to play in Delia's game. "You took me in the middle of the night. I haven't gotten the proper _rest_," she spat. Delia smiled at the quip, knowing that she reached the burning embers of Claire's core. But Claire took in a deep breath and shook her head, trying desperately not to get angry. "There are people who will come looking for me if I don't check in, Delia."

"How can you be so sure?" the British vampire challenged, placing the seed of doubt in Claire's mind. "You've been known to run all over the place, Claire. Trust me, I know. I've been tracking your every movement for the last twenty years."

"They'll come," Claire promised, but truth be told, she wasn't so sure. Delia was right—Stefan, Damon, Amelia...even if they realized she was missing, she didn't know whether they would think there was something really wrong or that she just hopped on another plane and left them. It honestly seemed like something she would do.

Delia shrugged. "I guess I better enjoy this while it lasts, then, shouldn't I?"

And, before Claire could say anything else, Delia drove a hidden wooden stake right into Claire's thigh, causing her to scream out in pain.

* * *

Stefan tried to go to Bonnie to get her to unseal the tomb so he could get Katherine to help them find Elena and Claire, but Bonnie objected to it with obvious reasons. Amelia had come in bearing the news that Carol Lockwood had been trying to reach Claire all day because her car was still at the mansion from the night before. But whatever they did, they had to assume that Elena and Claire were in the same place—if they weren't, there would definitely be a problem.

Jeremy laid down a map on a desk in Alaric's classroom for Bonnie as he asked, "How does this work?"

As she tried to light the candles beside the map, the witch explained, "I'll use your blood to draw the energy for the tracking spell. You're blood-related to Elena. It'll make the connection stronger."

"All right, Alaric said we gotta clear out of here within ten minutes," Stefan told Bonnie and Jeremy as he and Amelia rushed into the classroom, each with a bag of weapons. "We've got weapons, he stocked us up."

Bonnie looked up at Jeremy. "Are you ready?"

Jeremy shrugged in agreement and Bonnie reached forward to cut his hand and draw blood from his palm. He winced and hissed but let a few drops fall onto the map beneath him as Bonnie started to chant softly under her breath the spell that was required to locate Elena. The blood droplets that had fallen from Jeremy's hand clumped together and then started to move as one big blob over the area that read Mystic Falls and down to Eden in North Carolina. Bonnie pointed to the location.

"There," she said to Stefan. "She's there."

"That's three hundred miles away," Jeremy commented. Amelia ignored him and shook her head.

"We can't find them with only a city name. We need a more exact location than that."

She shook her head. "That's as close as I can get."

Luckily, Jeremy came up with a solution. "We can map it; aerial view will show us what's around there, help us narrow down the area."

Stefan nodded. "Perfect. Call me with whatever you find."

"No, no!" The Gilbert jumped over to Stefan in protest as he and Amelia braced to leave. "I'm coming with you!"

"No Jeremy, you're not," Stefan objected.

"No, I'm not just gonna sit here. What if she's hurt, okay? Or…or worse? What if she's…?"

"She's not," Stefan cut him off. "You two go back to your house just in case. I'm gonna call you the minute I find her."

"But you two can't do it alone," Jeremy argued. Suddenly, the door to Alaric's classroom opened and Damon stepped inside, shaking his head.

"They're not. Let's go."

Stefan looked back at him. "You're coming with me?"

"It's Claire."

It was all Damon needed to say for Stefan and Amelia to not ask any questions and get in Damon's Camaro, where they immediately headed out to go find Elena and hopefully find Claire with her. If Claire wasn't with Elena, however, they would have to start from ground zero again, they just hoped that it wasn't the case. As Stefan reached in the bag of weaponry Alaric had given him, he pulled out a grenade-like weapon and looked it over, trying to figure out how to use it for later.

"Alaric sure like his weapons," Damon sung. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know, it's a vervain bomb or a grenade launcher or something like that," Stefan told him. Damon scoffed.

"Weird."

Amelia frowned. "Well, whatever it is, keep it the hell away from me. I like my face, thank you very much."

"Hey, how much further is it?" Stefan asked his brother.

"About eighty miles."

Amelia leaned forward so that her head rested between the two front seats. She sighed. "What are we gonna do if Claire's not with Elena?"

"She will be," Stefan promised. "She has to. It makes the most logical sense. She wouldn't just leave us."

Damon hummed under his breath. "Mm...are you sure about that, Stefan?" The two brothers shared a glance. "You and I both know how many times over the decades she up and left without so much as a goodbye."

Stefan stared at his elder sibling with incredulity. "I'm sure, Damon."

"Well…who do you think took them, then?" Amelia questioned, intervening. Damon tore his eyes away from his baby brother's and shrugged.

"Someone from Katherine's past," Damon answered. "She said she was running from someone. Maybe they got the wrong girl."

"How would that explain Claire?" asked the blonde.

"Maybe it was someone from her past, then," Damon amended, thinking it over. He looked out the window and scoffed. "Claire likes to piss people off. I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up pissing off the wrong person and it came back to bite her in the ass."

Stefan scoffed. "Now _that's_ true. Do you remember that one time back in 1857 when—"

Damon cut Stefan off. "Can we not do the whole road trip bonding thing? The cliché of it all makes me itch."

For a moment, the car was silent, but then Stefan chuckled under his breath. Damon waited for his brother to elaborate on the humor of the situation, but he didn't look over at Stefan. Finally, Stefan turned his head and glanced at his brother.

"Come on, Damon. We all know you being in this car has absolutely nothing to do with helping us. Or Elena."

Damon smirked. "The elephant in the room lets out a mighty _roar_."

"Well, it doesn't have to be an elephant, you know?" Stefan proposed. "Let's talk about it."

Damon laughed. "There's nothing to talk about!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. That was a huge lie," Amelia pointed out. Damon rolled his eyes at her. "Come on, I'm not going to pretend like I don't see it, either." She paused and tapped Stefan on the shoulder again and whispered, "Come to think of it...it _is _a little weird talking about this. Especially in a moving car where I can't get out and save myself—"

"I'm gonna make this simple." Stefan turned his head out to the open road, cutting off Amelia, and asked Damon, "Are you in this car because you want to help your little brother save his best friend or is because _you _want to save her? Because you love her?"

"Seriously, crack a window back here," Amelia pleaded as she sat back on the seats and sighed. "This is really making me uncomfortable now."

Damon ignored her as Stefan barreled on. "I mean, come on, express yourself. I happen to like road trip…bonding."

"Keep it up, Stefan. I can step out of helping as easily as I stepped in," he warned.

Stefan tsked. "Nope. See, that's the beauty of it." He turned his head to Damon. "You can't."

* * *

Elena was officially getting fed up. She tried to escape, but knew that she couldn't because the vampires that had taken her told her that there was nothing for miles and she believed them. Besides, she knew she couldn't get more than three feet without one of them snatching her, and the shorthaired one had already slapped her for not being quiet enough. But she was desperate for answers.

"Why am I here?" Elena asked the female vampire that had slapped her earlier. The vampire sighed.

"You keep asking me these questions like I'm gonna answer them."

"Why won't you?"

"That's another one."

"You got me, okay?" Elena told her frustratedly. "It's not like I can go anywhere. The least you can do is tell me what you want with me."

"I personally want nothing," said the female as she walked away from boarding up a window in the run-down library in the middle of the worn-down house. "I'm just a delivery service."

"Delivery to who? Elijah?" Elena had heard the name before when she had tried to escape, whereupon the vampire had told her that her "worst nightmare" was a man named Elijah.

The vampire laughed. "Two points to the eavesdropper."

"Who is he?" the human teenager pushed. "Is he a vampire?"

"He's one of _the _vampires. The Originals."

"What do you mean, the Originals?" Elena repeated in absolute confusion. The female vampire sighed heavily and complained.

"Again with the questions! Haven't the Salvatores been teaching you vampire history?"

Elena blinked, surprised. "So you know Stefan and Damon?"

"I know _of _them," said the vampire. "A hundred years back, a friend of mine tried to set me up with Stefan. She said he was one of the good ones. I'm more of a sucker for the bad boys, though, but I digress. Besides, my sister has been infatuated with Stefan's best friend for the last two decades. Hard not to know who they are when she practically has an investigation file."

Elena stepped forward. "Wait…Claire? What does Claire have to do with any of this?"

The female sighed. "She killed my sister's boyfriend. Devastated her." The vampire shrugged. "However, I'm convinced that if Claire had just held off for a couple more months, Delia would've killed him anyway. But I guess this was just how things were meant to be."

The vampire turned around and started to shuffle through some of the old books. Elena, still confused, decided to focus her attention elsewhere. Claire wasn't her priority at the moment.

"Who are the Originals?" Elena urged.

Again, the female vampire turned around, now exhausted with Elena's questions. Finally, she answered, "Trevor and I have been running for 500 years. We're tired. We want it over. We're using you to negotiate ourselves out of an old mess."

"But why _me_?"

"Because you're a Petrova doppelgänger." Elena didn't understand what that meant. "You're the key to breaking the curse."

"Curse?" the teenager repeated. "The Sun and the Moon curse?"

The female vampire rolled her eyes. "You _do _know your history!"

"What do you mean I'm the key?" Elena stepped forward to the vampire. "The moonstone is what breaks the curse."

"No. The moonstone is what binds the curse. Sacrifice is what breaks it."

"Sacrifice?"

"Blood of the doppelgänger. You're the doppelgänger. Which means in order break the curse, you're the one that has to die."

"Oh, goodie." Delia sauntered into the old library wiping Claire's blood off her hands with a wet towel. "Good thing I walked in on a light note. Hey, Rose, where'd you put the gloves?"

"Trevor has them," Rose told her as Delia walked over to her side and viewed Elena for herself. Delia stopped for a moment, surveying the teenager quietly.

"Wow…she really _does _look like Katherine. It's…" Delia's nose wrinkled up in disgust, "…creepy."

"Whose blood is that?" Elena pointed at the white towel stained in dark, rich blood. Neither one of the sisters said anything as Elena tried to piece it all together in her mind. Delia smiled.

"Let's see if you can guess, cupcake."

"Wait," Elena protested as the light bulb seemed to go off in her head. "No. No, there was no one else taken with me. Claire was at—"

"Claire was at some party in that god awful town already soaked in her own blood." Delia put the towel down behind her and gave a small smile to the human. "Saved me a lot of trouble, actually. I saw the raw spots from where she was hurt before and I just reopened the wounds. She screamed. It was wonderful. You didn't hear?"

"Let her go!" Elena begged. "She has nothing to do with this."

"You're absolutely right," Rose agreed, slightly bitter. "She doesn't have anything to do with this. But my sister decided to take matters into her own hands."

"Clarissa King _deserves _it!" Delia protested as Rose walked over to the windows. She turned back to Elena. "Screw you, little girl. I'm never giving her up." She spotted Trevor behind Elena. "Hey! Trevor! Where'd you put the gloves?"

"Coffee table in the living room," Trevor answered, and hearing the location, Delia walked off to get the gloves, leaving Elena in the room with Trevor and Rose. Elena wanted desperately to go seek Claire and help her get out, but what could she really do in a house of three vampires? She was a human and they would kill her before she even had a chance to get Claire out. And something told her that Claire wouldn't be able to fend off the other vampires, either.

Claire, meanwhile, had no idea that Elena was even in the house. Until, that was, Delia came into the room again with a few cloves of vervain that she held by the stem in glove-covered hands.

"What's the deal with you and the Katherine look-alike? You loathed Katherine and...this girl wants me to let you go?" Delia asked as she walked closer. Claire, beaten and bloody, looked up at Delia for a moment, confused. Delia gasped. "Oh, right. I think I forgot to mention that, when I kidnapped you, I also kidnapped the doppelgänger."

Claire groaned. "Delia, let her go. She has nothing to do with this."

"You see? She said the same thing about you. Consider me officially confused."

"She's not Katherine," Claire promised the opposing vampire. "She's human. Just let her go."

Delia tsked. "No can do, cupcake. Not my problem." She bent down to look right into Claire's eyes and smiled. "Now you, on the other hand, are my problem. So let's see…where should we start?"

Claire eyed the vervain in Delia's hand, watching anxiously as it came closer and closer to her skin and finally touched it. She cried aloud as it burned through her skin and stayed there, almost burning a hole before Delia moved it along her arm, attempting to burn every part of her skin. At this point, there were tears at the corner of Claire's eyes and she couldn't take it anymore. The pain had grown to be too much.

"Please!" Claire cried. "Delia, please! Stop! I'm sorry!"

At this, Delia removed the vervain from Claire's arm and watched as the blonde vampire gulped down a lump in her throat. Delia watched as Claire slowly started to regain control of her throat and she looked up at her torturer.

"I'm sorry for what I did, Delia. I killed the man you loved and there is no apology in the world that can ever fully make up for it." Claire swallowed hard with a sigh and repeated, "I'm sorry."

But, after contemplation, Delia shook her head. "Not good enough."

And the pain started again.

* * *

"We're getting close," Stefan informed Damon as he sped down the highway towards the house that was supposedly far enough from civilization to be worth a shot. "Jeremy said there's an access road just past mile marker six."

Damon looked in his rearview mirror at Amelia, who was drinking blood out of a water bottle. "Hey, Blondie? Got any to spare?"

Amelia raised an eyebrow at him as she drank, but then she gulped down the last few sips and waved the empty bottle in the air with a shrug. Damon grimaced at her. "Guess you're shit out of luck."

Damon huffed for a moment before he maneuvered himself so that he was leaning behind Stefan's seat, using his hand as a guide. Amelia's protests were evident as she wacked at his arm, screaming.

"What the hell, Damon? _Super _inappropriate!"

Damon sighed and finally pulled out a blood bag he had stashed earlier in the car for strength. "Calm down."

After pulling the tube out of the bag, Damon started to drink the rich liquid from inside the pouch. He looked over to see Stefan eyeing the bag, and seeing the intrigue, Damon pulled away and smirked.

"If you want some, just ask."

"I want some," Stefan retorted.

"What, you wanna be all big and strong and save Elena to win her back? Well don't worry, I've got your back. You'll be fine." Damon snickered to himself thinking about Stefan drinking the blood. Stefan shook his head.

"I'm not trying to win her back, Damon, I'm trying to help her. She deserves my help. So does Claire."

Damon snapped his fingers. "Right! Totally forgot." He glanced behind him and smirked at the blonde vampire in the back, who was staring out the window, totally oblivious. "Mrs. Amelia Salvatore."

At this, Amelia's attention was obviously caught. Stefan sighed heavily, embarrassed, as Amelia leaned forward and arched an eyebrow.

"Mrs. Amelia Salvatore?" she repeated. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I never married you, Damon. You were _Claire's _future husband, remember?"

Damon waved a hand dismissively at her. "Of course I remember. I was just referring to—"

"He was just trying—and failing—to be funny, that's all." Damon looked over to see Stefan shoot a warning glance at his brother, to which Damon just smiled in triumph and went back to drinking his blood. "And I'm not joking about the blood. I've been drinking a little every day, slowly increasing my intake and building up my strength."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Claire's been teaching you?"

Stefan nodded. With a shrug, Damon gave Stefan the blood bag and let his brother take a sip out of it. Amelia leaned forward again to fit her head between the two seats.

"Why would Claire need to teach Stefan how to drink blood?" she asked. Stefan grew increasingly alarmed as Damon had a sadistic look on his face and had his one opportunity to spill the beans.

"Well, since we're road trip bonding—"

"Damon, please. Don't tell her."

"What?" Damon defended himself, his voice going up a pitch. "She's gonna find out eventually." Stefan exhaled, defeated, and looked out his window to avoid the awkward and humiliating conversation about to happen. Amelia looked between the Salvatore brothers.

"Okay…now I'm really curious. What the hell is going on?"

"Well, there's something you don't know about Stefan, Amelia, and it's that he used to be a _bad _guy. Never could control himself on the human stuff; even used to rip people apart for fun."

"What, like some sort of…blood addiction?" Amelia asked, looking over at Stefan, who said nothing. Instead, Damon answered for him.

"Yep! Almost exactly! Except, he was much more enthusiastic about it. More—"

"More like you?" Stefan filled in for his brother. Damon nodded.

"Yes, Stefan, exactly! Back when you put blood into me so I could be a big, bad vampire. By the way, what happened to that guy? He was a hoot!"

Stefan shrugged. "Guess he realized that there's someone out there that actually does care if he goes off the deep end." Damon fell silent, causing Stefan to look over at him and smile. "And, maybe, that person cares about his brother, too."

* * *

Delia tossed the last of the vervain onto the floor and ripped off her gloves, setting them to the side in case she needed them for later. Claire was bleeding profusely, blood dripping all over the hardwood floor in puddles. Her wounds healed, but it still hurt like hell. Delia sighed and listened to the house around her.

"Well, I guess that's Elijah. But Rose can handle my end of the deal. The girl will most definitely be our ticket to freedom. Guess I'll have to thank you for that," Delia added. Claire swallowed down the taste of blood in her mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, cupcake, if I wasn't keeping such close tabs on you, I would've never figured out everything about the tomb…about Katherine not being inside…about the doppelgänger…" Delia trailed off and shrugged. "So thanks. You earned my freedom."

Claire shook her head. "You can't give Elena up. She's my friend."

"And you were my friend," Delia snapped. Claire winced and hung her head, refusing to argue anymore. "Or, at least, you pretended that I was just so you could get close to Peter and then _kill _him, just for your own, sick pleasure."

"I wasn't myself," Claire tried. "I…had my emotions off, I was ruthless, and I hurt people. You think I don't know that?"

"Yes. Blood of the innocent." Delia nodded as she surveyed the hurt vampire in front of her and noticed the look of despair. "I know you have a thing about that. Well, Claire, your hands are _stained _with the blood of the innocent. You know, we could sit here and I could torture you for a day…a week…a month…a year—it doesn't really matter. It's all the same. At the end of the day, _you're _the one who's gonna have to live with yourself."

And the words, though she was unharmed at the moment, cut through Claire like a knife.

* * *

Three hundred miles later, Damon, Amelia, and Stefan finally arrived at the abandoned house which was, as Jeremy said, miles from any kind of civilization. Damon parked the car just far enough away to give them an edge for the element of surprise. Stefan walked out of the car with the bag of weapons on his shoulder as Damon spoke.

"The house should be just beyond those trees," Damon informed them. Without hesitation, Stefan nodded and started to head off in the direction of the house with Damon on his heels.

But Amelia looked up at the run-down mansion and called out, "Wait!" The two brothers turned and she sighed. "Are we…are we sure we want to do this?"

Stefan frowned. "Amelia, your sister's in there."

She shook her head. "No, _Elena_'s in there. We don't know if Claire is or isn't, we're taking a risk. And whoever's taken Elena—whoever's in that house—is probably the person that Katherine's been running from for…500 years. Which makes whoever it is so much older and stronger than the three of us combined."

"We can't leave Elena behind," Stefan argued. "Even if Claire's not inside."

Amelia let out a frustrated breath and looked at Damon for help. "Damon, come on. You get where I'm coming from, right?"

Damon hesitated, but nodded slowly. "If we go in that house, we may not come back out," he agreed.

Amelia made a sweeping gesture at him. "Right! Exactly. Thank you."

"But Claire's in there, Amelia. I know it." He turned on his heel. "So let's go."

Damon went first and Stefan kept his eyes on Amelia, who just sighed heavily and realized that she would be forced to risk her life on a _chance _that her sister was inside a creepy old house in the middle of nowhere. But she was left with no option but to follow Stefan and Damon inside.

* * *

"What do you want?" Claire whispered quietly with her head hung and tucked inside of herself, refusing to look up and give satisfaction to her torture. Delia crossed her arms.

"What do you mean?"

Finally, Claire raised her head and caught Delia's eyes with her own in a cold, hard stare. "I mean, there's got to be a price, Delia. Nothing you can do to me will amount to what I did to Peter so get on with it. Name your price, pick your poison. I'll give you anything. Either kill me or tell me what you want."

Delia sauntered forward and leaned down. "You think you can buy me off, Claire?"

"I think _everyone _can be bought off with something that they want," Claire spat at the other vampire. "It just depends on the person."

Delia shook her head, now more pissed off than anything. "You don't understand, Claire. I don't want anything from you. I don't even know what I _want _to do with you yet. All I know is that you and I are going to have a _lot _of fun for the next few decades."

Claire scoffed. "So that's your endgame? Torture? It'll get old in a week, _cupcake. _Trust me."

"Wanna bet?" Delia snarled, and the next thing Claire knew, Delia was reaching for the bloody wooden snake on the floor. Suddenly, however, there was a sound coming from the main foyer in the home, distracting Delia for just a second. Taking it as an opportunity, Claire managed to throw herself back with so much force that the chair split, allowing the ropes to fall loose and slide off her wrists, leaving the impressions of the ropes from the vervain burns. Delia swung at her with the wooden stake, but Claire jumped up and tried hard not to fall over as she fought blindly, blood dripping everywhere from her wounds.

The two vampires struggled hard until Delia managed to get the upper hand on Claire and forced them down. Delia climbed on top of Claire with the wooden stake pointed right at her heart. Claire wrapped her hands around Delia's and desperately fought to force the wooden stake up, but Delia was older and stronger than her, especially considering Claire's condition. Right when Claire was positive that she was going to face her final demise, the door to the ballroom opened.

Rose stepped inside. "Delia, we're leaving. Now! Leave her!"

Delia looked over to Rose at the door, then back at Claire, who was still fighting for her life. At last, Delia flung the stake across the room, climbed off of Claire, and flashed out with Rose, leaving Claire in the ballroom all alone, coughing and groaning with aches and wounds everywhere. Rose's interruption had Claire intrigued as to why, all of a sudden, the sisters had to go, so finally she forced herself up and out of the room.

It took her only a minute or so to get out to the foyer of the abandoned house, where she saw Elena, Amelia, Damon, and Stefan all crowded around the staircase. A man Claire had never seen before was pinned up against the wall with a wooden coat rack through his heart. Elena was being bombarded with questions from Stefan and Amelia regarding to her health, but when Elena saw Claire, she jumped up.

"Claire!" Elena exclaimed. Claire looked around at all of them and watched as Stefan rose from his seat on the stairs beside Elena, and she let out a long sigh at him. Then, suddenly, the two best friends found themselves in an embrace that was comforting to the both of them.

"Oh, thank God, Stefan," Claire breathed out into his shoulder, squeezing tightly. "I've never been so happy to see you in my entire life. Thank you."

Stefan hugged her tighter. "It was about time I returned those favors I owed you."

And, though it hurt, she laughed. She didn't notice it for a few beats, Damon was standing behind Stefan, staring at Claire, watching them as they hugged. For a moment, she debated on what to do, but then she nodded at him, a silent exchange of gratitude.

Damon's lips curved up into a sad smile and he nodded back. Elena watched Damon carefully and curiously while Amelia rushed over to Claire. Claire broke away from Stefan to hug her sister, and all she could do was close her eyes and be grateful that they came to her rescue.

* * *

After the long, hard day that Damon had, he deserved a drink. So the minute he got home and had a moment to relax, he poured himself a glass of bourbon and drank out of it, thankful for the alcohol. But sure enough, Stefan found him in the study, so Damon spoke first.

"Where's Elena?"

"She's home," Stefan replied.

"And Claire?"

"Upstairs trying to get the blood stain out of her shirt." Damon extended his glass of bourbon to his brother, and Stefan took it graciously. Hearing of Claire's actions, Damon scoffed.

"She better hope for a miracle." Stefan hummed in agreement to Damon's quip and Damon turned around and poured himself another glass to drink. Finally, Stefan sighed and broke the ice about something more important.

"Listen, uh, what Rose told Elena about the curse…"

"I know. We'll keep her safe."

Things were quiet for a moment as Stefan thought over his next words, but eventually, he sighed. "Listen, Damon…I'm not…I'm not gonna say anything else about you and Claire. The only way we're gonna be able to keep Elena safe and protect everyone else from whatever's coming is if we're not fighting. We let Katherine come between us and I don't want it to be the same way with Claire."

"Well, you're not in love with her." Damon shrugged. "Won't be an issue."

"She's my _friend, _Damon. My best friend," Stefan objected. Damon turned around to face his brother for a moment as he said seriously, "And I don't want to lose her. She's been with me through everything. And if you two end badly, I don't want to spend the rest of my eternity picking up the pieces."

Damon took a moment to process his brother's words before nodding once. "Yes, Stefan. I've heard it all before."

The dark-haired Salvatore turned and downed his bourbon quickly, ready to go upstairs and turn in for the night, but Stefan called him back. "Hey."

"What?" Damon turned.

"I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"For being the guy who made you turn 145 years ago," he apologized sincerely, causing Damon to be caught off guard. The elder brother didn't know what to say for a moment before finally shaking his head.

"Enough, Stef. It's late. We don't need to rehash that."

"You know what? I've never said it out loud." Stefan stood in his spot and stared at Damon with his hands in his pockets, just needing to speak the words. But Damon had his back turned, refusing to hear it even though he stood still. "I guess I just need to say it and you need to hear it. I'm sorry. What I did was selfish. I didn't want to be alone." Finally, Damon turned to face his younger sibling, who nodded. "I guess I just needed my brother."

And, without another word from either of them, Stefan turned on his heel and walked out of the study. Right as he did, though, Damon felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He took a moment of delay to think about his brother's words before finally pulling out his phone and checking the screen. The text was from Elena.

**Can you come over here for a couple minutes? We need to talk. **

* * *

When Damon arrived at Elena's house, he didn't even need to go all the way inside. Elena was waiting for him out on the porch steps with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. He walked up the small, paved walkway to her porch and climbed a few stairs as she rose from her place to face him. He threw his hands up in confusion.

"Everything okay, Elena?"

"Not really," she admitted. Damon arched an eyebrow and waited for her to clarify. "I saw you…today, watching Claire when she came out and hugged everyone—well, everyone but you." Damon stood still, waiting for Elena to get to a point. "You looked disappointed."

"I was exhausted. There's a difference. What's your point?" he urged.

Elena stared at him, studying Damon's impatient face for a while before finally sighing. "Damon, you love her." He moved to roll his eyes, but Elena caught the childish act as he squirmed. "Hey, don't bother denying it. I knew it since the second I saw you two in the car when we went to Georgia. There's something between you two...like you're connected or something. You can admit it to me." He bit down on his lip to refrain from confirming, so she said softly, "Then why don't you tell me that I'm wrong?"

Damon and Elena stood on the porch step for a while in silence before Damon finally groaned out of defeat. "So? What does it matter, anyway? Even if I did, she doesn't want to hear it and I'm not going to tell her."

"Because you're scared," Elena added. "Because you can't say it aloud without not being able to take it back. Because you can't…be _you _and cheat your way around it."

Damon shifted uncomfortably and, seeing it, Elena tried to cut to the chase. From inside the blanket, she produced Claire's silver comb that Damon knew all too well. On the inside of the comb design, Claire's full name was etched in the metal, marking it hers. Damon looked up at Elena in confusion.

"Where the hell did you get this?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I found it in a bunch of Stefan's things when I was over at his place one day and I liked it. Figured she wouldn't miss it." Elena paused and locked eyes with him. "But…I was thinking and…I saw this spell once in Bonnie's Grimoire to take away memories." Damon looked at her, surprised, and she said quickly, "It was a favor. Here."

Elena handed the comb over to Damon, who took it slowly and cautiously. She watched him as he ran his thumb over the silver and seemed to reminisce, but then coughed and looked back up at her. She smiled.

"All you have to do is crush it when you want her to forget," Elena told him. "She'll fall asleep and when she wakes up, she won't remember. It's your way out."

Damon was quiet for a long time. "Elena…"

"But you're gonna have to tell her one day, Damon," she reminded him, wrapping the blanket closer to her. "And trust me…when you finally do, it'll all be worth it." She smiled triumphantly. "And then you can thank me."

With nothing more to say, Elena turned on her heel and walked up the porch and into her home, leaving Damon standing on the stairs just staring after her in amazement.

* * *

"So much for my 'normal day at high school' plans, huh?" Amelia scoffed as she and Stefan walked into the Salvatore study together to get a drink. He chuckled and turned off the main light in the study, as the illuminating fireplace was enough for them to see without wasting so much electricity.

"All days aren't like this, I promise."

"But most days?"

"Most days," he agreed with a nod as they came around to the back of the couch where the alcohol tray was kept. As he moved to pour them two glasses, Amelia stepped beside him and gave a faltering smile.

"It's a good thing we rescued Elena." She pursed her lips and looked off into the glowing embers of the fire distractedly. "But now we know why Katherine really kept her around."

Stefan sighed. "Because she knew that Elena was needed in this...sacrifice thing." Amelia nodded and accepted the drink as he turned to her and extended the glass.

Her grey eyes sparkled. "What are we going to do?"

He took a sip of his alcohol. "We'll figure something out. All that matters right now is that Claire and Elena are safe."

"But Claire wasn't taken because of this Sun and Moon curse," Amelia reminded him. "She said it was because she was being tortured."

Stefan looked down. "By Delia." Amelia waited for him to clarify his response, and eventually, Stefan shook his head. "I don't know much about her. All I know is that Claire was ashamed enough to ask me never to ask about it after I tried talking to her the first time. We'll have to get the story out of her when she's ready."

"And what about you?" Stefan arched an eyebrow as she gulped down a sip of her bourbon. Quietly, she resumed, "Are you ever going to tell me what Damon meant today in the car? What he said about your past?"

Stefan fell silent. "We all have a past, Amelia."

"True. But I want to hear yours." She shrugged and set her glass down. She looked up at Stefan with concerned eyes and gave him an assuring nod. "I'm not going to judge you, okay? I have some skeletons in my closet, too. We can't all be perfect, no matter how hard we try."

She gave him a soft smile at the end and watched as Stefan hung his head and laughed, trying to conceal his partial amusement at the statement that he tried to be perfect all the time. He had to admit that it was true, but he knew that there were dark spots in his memory that he couldn't erase. But before he could tell Amelia what he wanted to say, to give her the entire story ever since he forced his brother to become a vampire, the two suddenly realized they were not alone. There was a creaking sound that was almost inaudible to the regular human ears, but not to a vampire's.

"Did you hear that?" Amelia asked, her eyes wandering around the room cautiously. Stefan put his drink down and looked around, too, with a nod. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and a blurred figure whipped past them as almost if to frighten. Then, there was another on the opposite side of the room. No one was visible, but Amelia and Stefan knew that they were not alone. Taking no chances, Stefan flashed over to grab one of the spare stakes they had lying around just in case of a surprise attack and Amelia stood still to watch for any movement.

"Who's there?" Stefan called out. Just as he did, two figures emerged from the darkest shadows across the room where the light could not hit their faces.

"We're not here to hurt you."

"Speak for yourself, Ro—" One of the figures scoffed, but was then stopped by the other figure. Stefan beckoned Amelia over to him and she moved so that she was standing beside him with the protection of the stake in his wrist on her side.

"Why are you here?" asked Stefan.

"Lexi once told me that you're one of the good ones," said the more cooperative figure.

"You knew Lexi?"

"Trevor was my best friend." Rose stepped out into the light to reveal herself to Stefan and Amelia in peace. Her sister stayed in the shadows. "For 500 years, my sister and I have lived with him and...he's gone. And I don't wanna run anymore because I don't have anywhere else to run to."

"Well, I'm sorry, but we can't help you." Stefan's eyes drifted to Delia. "Not after what she did to _my _best friend."

"Listen, cupcake, we're not the ones who needs some bloody help around here!" An angered Delia stepped out into the light in front of her sister and glared at Stefan with furious eyes. "You're the one who needs _our _help!"

"Cordelia!" Rose snapped, earning the silence of her bitter sister. Delia crossed her arms over her chest and relaxed, but squared her jaw and turned her head from Stefan and Amelia. Rose looked over at the other two vampires. "I apologize for my sister's actions. However, though Elijah may be dead, this isn't over."

Amelia frowned. "He's dead. It has to be over."

Rose stared at her and repeated gravely, "It isn't _over. _The Originals, they'll come for the doppelgänger. They have to. They're doing it for him."

"For who?" Stefan asked.

Delia sharply turned her head and bit, "Klaus." Stefan and Amelia caught her dire gaze. "They're doing it for Klaus."

* * *

Claire scrubbed as hard as she could to get the bloodstains off of her satin shirt that Delia had ruined with hours of understandable yet inconvenient payback. The soap was starting to soak into her skin and the normally pleasant smell was beginning to turn rogue. She was ruining her recent shower unintentionally, but she was desperate to remove the stains.

"Come on!" Claire hissed at her shirt as she scrubbed harder. "What's a girl gotta do to get a few goddamn stains out of her shirt?"

"Pray for a miracle," said another voice. Claire looked up to find Damon standing at the threshold of her in-room bathroom, leaning against the doorframe with a smirk. "You're not getting those stains out, Claire. The shirt's soaked in blood. Just let it go."

Claire put the soap in her hand down and washed the remaining suds off of her hands with the cold water from the faucet. She wiped her hands and sighed.

"Helpful. Whatever." Frustrated, she threw the shirt into the trash and tiredly leaned on the sink, exhaling heavily. Still sensing his presence, she turned to him and snapped, "Can I help you with something?"

Damon was silent, creating a spacious air between the two. It was only a few seconds later when Claire realized how enormously rude she was being and, even though it wasn't the worst she'd ever been to the elder Salvatore, she did realize that he didn't deserve it that time.

"Oh…I'm sorry. It's just…I've been tied up all day and tortured and...I'm exhausted. For once, I actually don't mean to be so rude to you." She pulled a hair tie off of the counter and walked into her room all while gathering her long, wet blonde hair out of her face.

As she waited for him to speak his peace, Damon straightened and realized that now was not the time for silence. Now was the time for him to be honest and to do what he should've done a long time ago. In his fist, he carefully and discreetly toyed with the hair comb he held onto for dear life. It was the only thing that allowed him to do this.

"I just…need to say something."

She looked up at him. "So say it. I'm tired, Damon. I don't have the energy for games right now." He said nothing, spiking her impatience. "If you're looking for a witty response, come back during office hours. Otherwise, spit it out."

Here she was, telling him to confess to her, but he couldn't do it. Damon felt his heart start to race and he knew that the words inside of him were going to sting the both of them. Again, he toyed with the comb—his salvation. She looked so oblivious, it was almost discouraging.

"You once told me that the worst thing I'd ever done to you was fall in love with you," Damon said quietly. Claire froze. "So…what I'm about to say…you're not going to like it."

There was a pause before she caught on, shook her head, and warned, "Stop. Don't do this. Turn around and walk away, Damon. I mean it."

"I can't keep walking away from you anymore, Claire." He stepped forward, only causing her to step back tensely with her hands up as barriers. Damon stopped, and she lowered her hands slowly as their eyes locked. He swallowed. "You need to know this. I just have to say it once. You just need to hear it."

"If I hear it, I'll never be able to un-hear it!" Claire exclaimed furiously. She stopped moving away from him, giving him the leverage he needed to step forward and place both his hands on her shoulders softly to keep her standing there. But she recoiled and forced his hands off before stepping back again. "You don't get it; you'll never understand how _selfish_ you are every single time you do this to me!"

"That's the point," Damon countered, looking right into her eyes. She turned her head at bit her lip. "I'm selfish when it comes to you. I've _always_ been selfish when it comes to you because I love you!"

And there it was. The words hung in the air, piercing the both of them, and Claire had no choice but to look back at him and capture his meaningful gaze.

Damon nodded slowly and repeated, "I love you, Claire. I've loved you since the moment I learned how to love and I'll love you for the rest of my eternity."

Neither one of them said anything, but just stared and waited for a solution to be brought up. Claire was starting to panic, but she didn't throw a tantrum like the last time. Instead, she swallowed and thought over Damon's words for a moment. That's when she realized how close he'd gotten, but she was too frozen to move.

"Damon, please don't…" she whispered, choking out the words. But when he was right in front of her, their lips inches apart, and she didn't move anywhere or do anything, he took it for himself to surge forward and kiss her without asking, without reservations. It was unusually sweet and tender, but it was a kiss that he was determined to make himself remember for as long as he needed. She didn't object, though he expected her to. But she let him kiss her, even though he knew it killed her inside. It hurt him more, though, knowing just what he was about to do to himself to salvage the sanity of the woman he loved and the growing friendship he wanted to hold on to.

Finally, he pulled away. After a moment of silence, he found the right moment to whisper quietly, "I don't deserve you."

"Don't say that." Claire shook her head against his hand, but had nothing else to say. She brought her hand up to touch his, but she felt like she was falling down a dark hole she wouldn't be able to climb out of. Her head hurt and she would begin to panic soon, it was inevitable. What had he done? He took a wrecking ball to everything that they had built since the last time this happened. He ruined their entire relationship just to satisfy his own, selfish desires.

However, the truth was that Claire, herself, was the one who had been selfish for the past century. And she knew this truth to be self-evident, she just refused to let herself care enough to change it.

"It's true." Damon stepped away from her so that there was more distance between them, but Claire didn't object to that, either. "I never deserved you, not as a best friend or as a wife. Everything that happened, it was for the best. But if there's one person who deserves you as a friend, it's Stefan. And that's one thing I can't take away from him."

Claire looked up at him, confused. "Damon, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I'm sorry."

"For wha—?"

She stopped mid-sentence, frozen still like time had stopped. Damon, with watery eyes, looked down at his hand slowly and watched as a shower of the crystalized, crushed remnants of Claire's hair comb remained and floated to the ground, sealing her fate. He looked up at her again and was left to watch with despair as her eyes fell back into her head and she fell limp, right into his arms. He caught her promptly and, without wasting time, put her inside the bed so she could sleep it off.

And she would remember nothing in the morning, just like Elena had said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please! Hopefully I can get 2x09 finished before next Wednesday. I'm about halfway through it right now so I'd say there's a pretty good chance...**

* * *

**shiannebilling: **Haha thanks! 'The strongest blood comes from the King'. That's all I can give you right now. Stay tuned with the next chapter to find out what that means :)

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **He might come back sooner than you'd think. But I intend on giving Christopher a life before he jumps into a relationship again. After all, he devoted himself to Claire who was basically lying to him about Damon the entire time. He needs a trip to discover himself.

**NicoleR85: **He'll come back. I can't speak to whether or not he will stay, but he will be coming back. Let's just say that Claire is going to have a fun time dealing with him and Damon at the same time.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Stefilia? Amefan? I don't know, I'm not good at making up ship names :)

**grapejuice101: **Here's the update! Worth the wait?

**Savage Kill: **It's the theme of the story: don't piss people off because they will eventually hate you and claim revenge :P


	23. Katerina

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :) **

**By the way, my Latin is a little rusty because I took it in Spring 2014 and they keep refusing to let me take Latin II every time I request a schedule change because of scheduling issues. So the phrase in this chapter may or may not correct with the endings and it may seem just...blatantly wrong to those of you that can read Latin as well. But there's a translation spoken on what it's supposed to say. If anyone knows if the phrase is correct or incorrect (and knows the right answer) please PM me or leave a review telling me what the correct phrasing is.**

* * *

**Katerina**

Damon was the one who opened the door for the awkwardly uncomfortable Elena who stood on the front of the Salvatore porch step awaiting to be let inside. When he saw her, he gave the human soft smile to which she returned.

"Hello, Elena."

"Damon." She gave him a nod, where a silent exchange passed between them both. Elena was trying to contain herself and desperately trying to make sure she didn't push the vampire into giving her answers on how her matchmaking skills turned out, but it was harder than it looked. Inside, she itched to ask so many questions but she knew that if she was the one asking them, Damon would never tell her. He had to come to her on his own accord. So, she sighed. "Where's Claire? She called...said it was important."

Damon stepped aside and gestured into the house. "Right this way. But be forewarned, she's in a _mood_."

Elena bit down on her lip as she crossed the threshold to refrain from asking all the questions on her mind. "Oh?"

Damon chuckled under his breath, finding it amusing that the human was so intent on sparing his feelings. So, he gave her what she wanted. "Yes. But it's not because of what happened last night."

Elena's chocolate eyes sparkled. "What happened last night?"

He sighed. "I'll spare you the details. But I'm sure you can guess."

She felt somewhat relieved for Damon, but also sad for him. She knew how hard it was for him to admit that he loved anyone, let alone Claire, and for him to erase the confession from her mind must've killed him. It was written all over his face.

Lowly, she asked, "You feel better now?"

He shook his head. "No." Moving on, Damon took in a sharp inhale. "But that doesn't change the fact that she's still in a mood."

"Can it, Damon." Claire snapped at him as she walked up to Damon and Elena in the foyer and crossed her arms. She gave him a sour smile, but Elena watched as Damon just tried to relax himself. "I'm always in a 'mood' according to you." The blonde looked at Elena. "Good. You're here."

"What's this about?" Elena asked.

Claire opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't have to answer Elena's question. The presence of the human's captor the day before was enough to spark a thousand questions inside of Elena's mind, but also enough to answer the one question she had asked Claire. Rose stepped out behind the blonde vampire with her hands in her jean pockets with an ashamed, guilty look on her face.

"You," the human whispered, surprised. Claire exhaled heavily.

"Yep. Her."

* * *

"Okay, you have to understand…we only know what we've picked up over the years. And I don't know what's true and what's not true." Rose stammered as she paced back and front of the unlit Salvatore fireplace in the study, staring at the glaring Elena who sat down on the long couch by herself. Stefan and Amelia were standing beside Delia, who was sitting down on the armchair beside Rose, and Claire and Damon were both standing around the back of the couches watching as their speakers repeated their information for Elena.

Delia smiled bitterly. "That's the problem with trusting information given by vampires. Vampires can't be trusted. We lie."

"Shocker," Claire shot towards her own captor. Everyone in the room was acutely aware of the ongoing distrust between Claire and Delia, but decided to pay no mind to their bickering, which almost rivaled that of Damon and Claire's, for the greater good of working together. The two opposing female vampires stared at each other with a burning hatred until Rose intervened with a sigh.

"But Klaus, we _know _is real," continued the elder, more mature sister. Elena shrugged, still in the dark about most of what the two British vampires were trying to relay to her.

"Who is he?" the human asked.

"He's one of the Originals. He's a legend," answered Damon.

"From the first generation of vampires," Stefan added to clarify his brother's statement. Elena looked over at him and, though the thought of being wildly uncomfortable by the sight of Amelia and Stefan standing so blatantly shoulder-to-shoulder, ignored her personal feelings and barreled on with her questions.

"Like Elijah?"

"No! Elijah was the Easter Bunny compared to Klaus," Rose exclaimed frustratedly. "He's a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal."

"Klaus is…" Amelia trailed off with a worried sigh, "…_the oldest_."

Elena shook her head in refusal. "Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?"

"Yes."

"No."

The two different answers came from two different sides: the British vampire sisters said the more frightening answer and Stefan and Amelia tried to reassure Elena with the easier one. Claire and Damon looked at each other, both of them unsure how to answer, until Damon finally inhaled sharply and tried to amend the fear that came off from Rose and Delia's joined statement.

Damon stammered, "What they're saying is...I mean, if what they're saying is true—"

"It is," Delia interrupted him curtly. The raven-haired Salvatore only stopped long enough for her interjection before ignoring her and moving on.

"—and they're not just saying it so we don't kill you..."

"Which we're not," Rose cut in. Behind the couch, Claire gave a frustrated sigh at the theatrics of the pause-and-stop game going on.

"Maybe," Claire finished for Damon impatiently. Elena looked back at her with eyes full of concern and disbelief. "What they're saying is _maybe. _We don't know anything for sure."

"Look, Elijah's dead, right?" Stefan thought aloud. He looked at Elena hopefully. "So...no one else even knows that you exist."

"Not that you know of, but I'm sure if Rose and I could find her—" Delia added, but was stopped by Damon in the middle of her sentence with a murmur.

"That's...not helping."

"Look, I've never even met anyone who's laid eyes on him. I mean, we're talking _centuries _of truth mixed with fiction. I mean, we don't know what's real! For all we know, he could just be some sort of stupid...bedtime story." Stefan's desperate attempt to make his ex-girlfriend feel better about being the object of desire to the oldest vampire known to them failed once Rose broke in again.

"He's real! And he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot!" Rose barked.

"All right, we're shaking." Damon rolled his eyes. "You've made your point."

Before anyone else could strategize or enforce terror within an individual further, Elena abruptly rose from the couch just as Claire finished her morning drink and moved to pour a new one. Seeing Elena abandon them, Stefan raised his eyebrows and called out, "Where you going?"

She looked back at him disinterestedly. "School. I'm late."

Stefan began to move forward to walk with her. "Let me grab my stuff. Amelia and I will come with you."

Amelia shifted uncomfortably, knowing just how awkward it would be for the three of them to ride into school together in a white wagon, but decided not to say anything because she knew it wasn't for the benefit of her and Stefan, it was for Elena to keep her safe. Though Stefan and Elena had no romantic obligations anymore, it didn't stop them all from protecting her in the midst of an impending threat on her life.

"That's okay," Elena declined him with a bit of a sassy edge to her voice. Feeling brave, she added, "I know where it is." She moved towards the door, but then turned back slowly and looked at Claire behind the couch. "Hey, Claire? Can we talk for a second?"

The request caught Claire off guard for a moment, but eventually she nodded. She put her bourbon glass down on the counter behind the couch and nodded, moving towards Elena. "Sure. I'll walk you out."

As the vampire and the human left, Damon whispered lowly to Amelia beside him, "Looks like your boyfriend has another girlfriend, huh, Blondie?"

Stefan turned around at his brother sharply. "Shut up, Damon."

"What's this about?" Claire asked her friend as they stepped out of the house into the broad daylight in front of the house. She made sure to keep her voice low, realizing that whatever Elena wanted to tell Claire was not something she wanted the rest of their friends to hear. Elena inhaled sharply and kept her voice as low as she possibly could.

"We need answers, Claire," Elena whispered quietly. Claire waited and listened to Elena with a half-hearted open mind. "_I _need answers. And I'm not going to get them from the people who kidnapped us—one of which absolutely hates you."

Claire snorted. "Surprise, surprise. Who couldn't see that one coming? But if not them, then who? I don't know anyone who's seen Klaus and even if I did—"

"No," Elena interrupted her. "You're wrong. We _do _know someone who knows about Klaus. We know someone who knew this was going to happen all along."

This made Claire think, long and hard, probably looking as stupid as she'd felt. But, though it took her moments on end to finally conjure up the name of the person Elena was speaking of, she still protested like Elena knew she would. "No!" Claire hissed. "No! Absolutely not! Hell no! Oh, wait a minute, did I forget to say_ no_?!"

"It's the only way," the doppelgänger pushed. Claire shook her head in refusal, but Elena continued. "Look, she said that they were going to come after you, too. Your family name is in her book, Claire!"

"What?" Claire hissed, confused. Elena nodded with a swallow.

"I've been reading Katherine's family lineage. One of her brothers married a King. Don't you want to know what that means?"

"It means that the women in my family have terrible taste, that's what it means," she murmured.

Elena let out a frustrated sigh. "Claire, she knew you were going to get taken. I doubt the only reason Delia took you was because she wanted revenge."

"Then you don't know Delia! Because she _did _take me just for revenge."

"Katherine knew, Claire." Elena looked at her friend with sincere eyes, causing Claire to sigh frustratedly again knowing that she was about to do something because Elena was going to compassionately guilt her into doing it. "If you don't want your answers, that's fine. But I need your help getting mine."

Claire was reluctant, more reluctant than she'd ever been with Elena. But, at last, she bit down hard on the inside of her cheek and succumbed to the request. "Fine. What do you need me to do?"

* * *

"Tell everyone I wasn't feeling well and I went home from school," Elena said to Caroline as she trudged through the dirt ground of the back forest of the graveyard with Claire by her side holding a thirty pound bag as if it were a light paperweight. Caroline frowned.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this." She snuck a glance at Elena and said loudly, "I'm a terrible liar!"

"Well would you rather me send her down alone?" Claire retorted to the young vampire who trotted alongside her with a peeved, exasperated expression. "We need someone to keep Stefan busy. I would've asked Amelia but she'd be too worried about me going down a rabbit hole to spend an entire day with the evil bitch who killed me...then tried to kill me again. Repeatedly."

"I'm worried!" Caroline exclaimed. "She _did _come back here basically to ruin your entire life, Claire! And you're just going to have a nice chat with her?"

"Caroline..." Claire trailed off, her tone bearing a certain parental scold. "This isn't your decision to make. I made up my mind, now we need your help. Can you distract Stefan or not?"

"I'm even worse at duplicity!" continued the young blonde, who looked at her human friend. "And you know this, Elena."

Elena shrugged. "You managed to keep Claire occupied when Katherine paid Christopher a visit at the boarding house."

"Yeah, 'cause she threatened me." She paused. "Not that I'm saying that you should use that as a tactic. It's—" Caroline pulled her sire's arm back to stop her in front of the opening to the tomb. Elena stopped, too, looking back at both of her female vampire escorts. "Claire, you know Stefan's going to see right through me. I'm not his best friend, he doesn't trust me like he trusts you. He'll know something's up!"

"Just take him and Amelia out for lunch after school," Claire suggested lightly. Caroline turned her cheek, obviously detesting her task. "Come on, Caroline. Help your sire out, will you?"

Caroline turned her head back to Claire and frowned. "You're pulling the 'my blood turned you' card on me?"

Claire clasped a hand on Caroline's shoulder and gave her a small smile. "What's the point in turning a vampire if you can't have her help you out once or twice?"

"You didn't mean to turn me! Katherine killed me!"

"Doesn't make it any less true," she pointed out. Caroline struggled, trying to find the energy to turn down Claire, but she knew that it was a favor she would have to go through on. Besides, she would try her best but gave no guarantees. She sighed.

"Okay. Fine. I'll keep him occupied. But just remember, you can't pull the sire card for at _least _another two weeks!"

"Done." Claire watched as Caroline threw a cautious glance to Elena and then departed to head to school, where Claire turned around at Elena and scowled, deeply dreading the day ahead of them. "You ready?"

"Are you?"

Claire went down the stairs to the tomb first while breathing out, "As ready as I'll ever be. And I'll never be ready so..." She touched base on the underground dirt floor and set the bag down at her feet as Elena came up behind her. "Let's just get this over with."

"Agreed." Elena exhaled. Claire studied the doppelgänger's face for a moment before speaking cautiously, stalling just long enough to make sure that what they were doing was the right decision. Her voice was slow and steady as she spoke.

"You're sure this is what you want to do?" asked Claire. Elena waited for a clarification to the question. "I mean, Katherine might know the truth about Klaus but she could just as easily tell us lies. Probably even more lies than Rose and Delia could even be creative enough to think of."

"I can't just sit back and wait," Elena said firmly. "I have to know, Claire. Please."

"All right." Claire sighed and moved towards the door of the tomb. She studied it, thinking back to the first time she'd been inside the small hole in the ground, unaware of the fact that her husband had been rotting inside ever since the 1800s. A hit of nostalgia rushed over her, but she pushed her own emotions back and covered it with a quip. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

So she lifted the stone door of the underground hell and effortlessly moved it out of the doorway to the side, though it weighed more than fifty men could bear to pick up. Light shone through the doorway of the tomb but did not light the tunnels inside, but neither Elena nor Claire were going to step through the threshold to check it out.

"Katherine?" Elena called with an echo from the tomb's lack of acoustics. Claire stepped back as far as she could, feeling much safer where she was in the light than in the dark. Elena looked back at her friend slowly and offered, "You know, you don't have to do this. You can leave. I'll be fine as long as I stay on this side of the door."

Claire shook her head tightly. "I'm staying."

Just as she finished her words, there was a soft shuffling sound from inside the tomb. Elena and Claire both watched as bare, filthy feet moved forward from the darkness into the light, and out stepped a dirty, pale Katherine moving as far as her barrier would allow her. She fell to the wall, weak and hungry, with a slam. Elena gasped, but tried not to let her obvious fear allow Katherine to manipulate her goals.

"Hello, Elena," Katherine croaked. Her eyes shifted towards the blonde. "Claire. Come to watch me wither away?"

Claire stiffened. "Had to find a source of entertainment somewhere. Right, Katherine?"

"Stefan know you're here?"

"We brought you some things." Elena evaded her question and bent down to open the bag that Claire had carried through the forest. A small smile appeared on Katherine's white, chapped lips.

"You two came to bribe me? What is it that you want?"

Elena pulled out a sleeping bag and threw it in front of her look-alike. "I want you to tell me about Klaus."

Katherine looked up and hummed a sound of crackled approval. "Mm...You've been busy." She looked up at Claire. "Let me guess, you've had a lot of free time now that you're a divorced woman? You're here to find out about Klaus, too?"

"I came to see you rotting in your own pit of despair." Claire shot a bitter smile towards her enemy. Elena set down a lantern on the ground to give to Katherine later. "But yes, more information on Klaus would be helpful, too."

"I also brought you this," Elena intervened, pulling out a book from the bag and rising to face Katherine. The vampire doppelgänger seemed to recognize the large book. "It's your family history. I've read it. It says in here that the family line ended with you. Obviously, that's not true."

Katherine scoffed. "You think that if you brought me some family keepsake that I'd open up?"

As Elena and Katherine stared off at each other, Claire reached into Elena's bag and whistled, earning Katherine's undivided attention as the female vampire pulled out a full bottle of A-negative she'd scored from the blood bank earlier and had packed upon Elena's request. "We also brought a snack."

Katherine flung herself at the barrier of the tomb, hitting the spell wall as she pined after the blood just a few feet away from her. Her lips trembled from the hunger and her eyes narrowed, black and heartless, as she stared into the eyes of the woman that she'd hated for such a long time that now held the power to revive her on the edge of desiccation. Katherine's whole entire body shook with desire as she focused on the delicious liquid in the bottle.

"You look a little parched, Kat," Claire shot as she stepped forward and tossed the bottle up in the air, close enough to her that it landed in the opposite hand she'd thrown it with. Katherine's cold eyes followed the blood as if she were a cat with yarn. "You know, another decade or two down here and you'll be a living mummy. Only, you'll be a mummy that won't return because, by then, everyone will have forgotten about little Miss Katherine Pierce rotting beneath old church ruins." She inhaled sharply. "It must really _suck _to be you."

Removing her eyes from the bottle, Katherine looked up at Claire and kept the blonde vampire's gaze as Katherine relaxed and slid down against the very edge of the tomb to the floor. Seeing Katherine's cooperation, Claire handed the bottle to Elena, who bent down with a cup in her hand, unscrewed the lid off of the full water bottle filled with blood, and poured a sufficient amount to get Katherine to talk. She used a stick to push the cup towards Katherine and to pull it back for refills.

"You have the Petrova fire," Katherine noted as she pulled the cup up to her lips. Elena didn't respond but merely watched as Katherine drained the contents in the plastic cup with ecstasy.

"More blood?" Katherine set the cup on the ground and Elena pulled it back to her for a refill. Claire stepped forward.

"Now talk," she demanded. Katherine rolled her head back on the stone wall of the tomb.

"It's a long story, Klaus and I. Goes all the way back to England, 1492, after I left Bulgaria. Or...was thrown out."

As Katherine drained a shot of blood, Elena arched an eyebrow. "Thrown out?" she repeated.

Katherine nodded. "My family, your true ancestors, they disowned me. My indiscretions were not tolerated at that time. I had a baby out of wedlock. The _shame_." She widened her eyes, feigning the shock of her family towards her affair.

"It was kept secret?"

Katherine nodded again. "My baby was given away. I was banished to England, and I had to learn to adjust. So I quickly became _English_. It was there that I caught the eye of a nobleman named Klaus. I was taken with him at first, until I found out what he was and what he wanted from me. And then I ran like hell. A vampire named Trevor helped me escape Elijah, who had come after me when I ran from Klaus. He told me to go to a cottage to seek refuge."

"Trevor?" Claire repeated, stepping forward. "Rose and Delia's best friend, Trevor?"

Katherine smiled. "So you've reconnected with dear old Delia, haven't you?"

Suddenly, this made Claire stop and think to herself. With caution, she began, "Did you...did you know that Delia was gunning for me? That she was out for revenge? She kidnapped me, Katherine!"

The doppelgänger shrugged. "I might've heard a rumor here or there. But let's be honest, you knew she was going to come after you sometime, didn't you? You did kill her boyfriend, after all."

"It was a mistake." Claire shook her head. "And I don't have to explain myself to you. Besides, you knew that this would happen all along. You probably told her where I was!" She looked over at Elena. "I _told _you Delia only took me for revenge. She was stretching the truth, like she always does."

"Are you really that self-involved to think that you were taken just because you killed some brat's boyfriend two decades ago?" Katherine shot, stopping Claire from accusing her of any further blasphemy. Claire paused and waited for Katherine to elaborate. "Delia wanted revenge, sure, but that was never her true endgame. She planned on doing exactly what's going to happen to Elena; she was going to hand you over."

"Hand me over to who?" Claire pushed. "Klaus? What would he want with me?"

"More or less the same thing what he wanted from me, and what he'll want from Elena." Katherine looked over at her look-alike with pointed eyes. "He wants to break the curse."

"By sacrificing the Petrova doppelgänger," Elena noted.

Katherine agreed, adding a wide sense of imagery to her statement for emphasis, "He wanted to drain every single drop of blood from my body."

"I'm not a Petrova doppelgänger, in case you've forgotten," Claire snapped. "So either you're lying to cover your own ass or you have no idea what he'd want from me."

"Oh, I know what he wants from you." Katherine shrugged. "Like I said, he wants the same thing from you as he did with me and will want from Elena. He wants to sacrifice you."

"But why?"

"I thought you'd be more educated by now."

"Tell me why, Katherine, or I swear to God—"

"_Rex sanguis ex fortissimis." _Katherine kept Claire's gaze as she said the powerful words, and Claire stopped to listen briefly with a confused look on her face. Her opponent swallowed thickly and translated, "'The strongest blood comes from the King'."

* * *

Rose sat in one of the many downstairs rooms in the Salvatore house, trying to compose herself as she cried over the loss of her friend in a stranger's household. She heard the words in the back of her mind telling her to get herself together before someone caught her, but it was only when she heard two sets of footsteps in the distance and a voice that caught her off guard when she sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"All right, rosebud," Damon announced as he and Delia joined Rose in her solitude. "I need some answers and your sister is being _very _uncooperative." Delia rolled her eyes as she followed Damon up the short set of stairs into the connecting room but was soon distracted seeing her sister's distress.

"Rose?" Delia asked as Rose got up from her seat, her head ducked in shame, and walked over to her purse to grab a couple tissues from inside. "Rose? Are you okay?"

Damon groaned. "Oh, please don't tell me you're crying 'cause your buddy Trevor lost his head."

Rose chuckled bitterly. "You always been this sensitive?"

"Little vampire switch you can just _pfft _for this very reason. Takes the emotion out of it."

"Yeah, you switch yours, I'll switch mine," Rose offered. Delia rolled her eyes.

"Always seemed like a cheat to me."

"Is that a dig?" Damon pushed, ignoring Delia's comment and indicating the rude statement towards the elder sister. Rose smiled.

"It's an observation. Being in love with your brother's best friend, the woman who hates you so endlessly, must be difficult."

Offended at the blunt accusation, Damon threw his hands up into the air and exclaimed, "I'm not in love with anyone!"

"You wanna try that again?"

"Let it go, sis." Delia looked over at Damon carefully. "But, if you do happen to be in love with little-miss-perfect, just remember, cupcake, you're way too good for her. Besides, she'll never give you the time of day the way you want. It's not hard to deduce the fact that she absolutely despises you and once she's got her mind set on something the bi—"

Damon flashed forward to Delia, looking her right in the eye. She stopped, mid-sentence, and after realizing the intent look on his face, tried not to laugh at the amusement he was causing her. "Let me be clear, _cupcake; _I don't like you. For whatever reason, you tortured someone close to me and then decided to show up here and start throwing around names. The only one around here allowed to make up names is _me. _Got it?" She stayed silent and he looked her up and down. "_Don't _get on my bad side."

Delia couldn't resist chuckling. "That would insinuate that you have a good side."

Damon, pleased with the banter but determined not to show it, stepped back with a small smile and looked at Rose. "How do I find Klaus?"

"You don't find Klaus. He finds you," Rose answered. Damon sighed.

"That's what I told him, too. He didn't believe me," Delia shot at the elder Salvatore. He turned around on his heel and started to pace.

"Come on! Somebody's gotta know _somebody _who knows where he is, right?"

"Add another 200 somebodies to that and you're _still _not even close." Rose sat down on the arm of a lounge chair as she looked at Damon with firm eyes. He turned back at her.

"Humor me. You got in touch with Elijah. How'd you do it?"

"Through a very low somebody on the totem pole." Damon waited for her to elaborate. "A guy named Slater in Richmond."

"Perfect! I'll drive."

"No." Rose gestured between her and Delia. "You forget, not all of us can do sun."

Damon looked up at the curtains to see the sun shining through and realized that Rose had been sulking in the shadowed part of the room. Irritated, he amended his statement. "Then you drive. Come on."

* * *

Amelia and Stefan walked side by side together outside of the school as the instructional day came to a close, and Stefan was moving astronomically faster than Amelia was, who struggled to keep up to his side. She exhaled, agitated with his determination.

"Stefan, seriously? Elena is fine. I'm sure she just has a stomach bug or something, it's not anything to be worried about."

"Well, we can't be taking any chances." He fixed the strap of his bag on his shoulder and moved faster. She groaned to herself quietly. "With everything going on right now, I don't think it's a good idea for Elena to be alone...at all, really. Especially after she was taken—"

Amelia stopped in her tracks as Stefan moved forward without her. As he moved away, she shouted, "You want to sleep in her bed, too, or would that finally be crossing the line?" Stefan turned around, seeing her exhaust, and walked up to her with confusion all over his face. Amelia sighed. "Stefan, she broke up with you because you didn't know whether or not you had feelings for me. And, considering everything that's happened in the last couple days, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you _do _have feelings for me. But, you know, I could always be wrong."

Stefan shook his head. "It's not like that. Amelia, I _do _have...feelings for you."

"Really? Then why are you rushing to your ex-girlfriend the minute school ends?"

"Because she could be in danger," Stefan tried, stepping forward to explain it to her clearly so he wasn't upsetting his companion. She turned her cheek, biting the inside to refrain from saying the same thing she had before. "Look, just because I'm worried about Elena doesn't mean that I'm in love with her. I just want to make sure she's safe. Something feels off. With Claire, too, I...I just don't know what it is."

Amelia pursed her lips, looking back at Stefan and trying desperately to avoid the trap she called his emerald green eyes. Eventually, she let out a deep breath and admitted, "Well, Claire hasn't called me all day...which is kind of unlike her..."

"See?" Stefan shook his head. "It doesn't feel right. I need to make sure everything's okay. You understand that, don't you?"

"Yeah, I understand it." She shrugged. "I mean...I get it. Even if something didn't feel off, I...know that you think it's still your job to keep Elena safe. I get it, Stefan, because that's just who you are. You're too..." Amelia trailed off, searching for the right term that had her tripped up. He waited for her to come up with the answer and, when she finally did, she let out an exhale, "...good."

"Good?" Stefan repeated slowly. She nodded. "That's all you could come up with?"

"Hey, school drains a lot out of a person." He smiled and she reached over to grab his hand. He looked down at it and back up at her, where she smiled and started to walk forward. "Come on. Let's go to Elena's house. Then we can go check on Claire and _then...then _we can go grab something to eat because I'm a little hungry."

Stefan chuckled. "Deal."

But just as they started to leave campus together, the two of them heard their names being called. Looking behind them, Stefan and Amelia noticed Caroline jogging up to the two of them. Stefan and Amelia split their hands.

"Stefan! Amelia." Caroline slowed down next to them. "Um, I need to talk to you two. Where are you going?"

"Well, Elena went home sick," Stefan began. "I just want to go check up on her."

"Ditch her." Caroline laughed.

"Stefan's worried that there's something wrong. With Claire, too," Amelia countered. Caroline looked between the two and sighed, her heart beating rapidly from her nervousness trying to distract the pair.

"You know what? Of course you are. Go ahead—I'll...you know what, we can talk later." Caroline started to walk away, but hearing the shakiness of Caroline's voice, Stefan and Amelia looked at each other in concern and turned around to stop her.

"Uh, talk about what?" Stefan asked, preventing the blonde from leaving them. Caroline turned around and they all came to a stop in the courtyard. The young vampire scrambled for an excuse and said the first thing on her mind she thought would prevent Stefan and Amelia from going to check on her friends.

"I...might have done something."

Amelia frowned. "Something like...?"

Caroline bit down on her lip and, before she could stop herself and find another solution to her problem, blurted out, "I told Tyler I'm a vampire."

* * *

"'The strongest blood comes from the King'?" Claire quoted her enemy as she paced in front of the tomb. Katherine stayed silent. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means exactly what it sounds like. The strongest blood comes from the King." She looked up at Claire. "'The King', meaning, the King family. An exclusive line of men and women wielding the power to give the most powerful strength to any vampire who ingests their blood."

Claire stared. "What is this, some sort of myth? A legend?" Katherine shook her head.

"It's all real."

"Bullshit! How have I not heard of this before, then?"

"You think your family goes around bragging about being the one thing that can make vampires a hundred times stronger?" The sassy vampire shot a pointed glare at the blonde across the threshold. "In order for a vampire to gain the strength, someone has to die. The power of King blood is one of the greatest-kept secrets since the beginning of time. Downside is, the power doesn't last very long for a regular vampire. Two...three days, at most. However, for an Original..."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Claire crossed her arms and laughed. "I'm supposed to be sacrificed so some power-hungry jackass can take on world domination? Please. Now I know you're lying."

"I'm not lying." Katherine shook her head. She sighed and looked down the tunnels of the tomb and murmured under her breath, "Not that you would believe me, anyways."

"Damn right I don't believe you!" Claire snapped. Katherine turned back at her to find Claire pointing an accusing finger as she bent down to Katherine's level. "All you've ever done, all you've ever wanted, was to see me suffer. To _make _me suffer. And now I'm supposed to believe that you're not making up stories so that you can see to it that I'm a fool?"

"Fine. Then don't believe me." Katherine looked at Elena. "I'll take more blood now."

Claire decided not to egg Katherine on, primarily because she was going to go insane if she had to deal with another one of Katherine's lies. As Elena pushed another cup to Katherine, she moved on to try and push more answers out of their informant.

"What does the Petrova bloodline have to do with Klaus?"

"It's really tedious but..." Katherine drank what was left in her cup and crushed it in her hand. Her color slowly started to come back to her face, removing the cold color from her features. "The curse was bound by Petrova blood. Witches are crafty with their spells. The doppelgänger was created as a way to undo the spell. Once the doppelgänger reappeared, the curse can be broken."

"So you ran before he killed you?" Elena urged. Katherine paused.

"Something like that."

* * *

The black SUV that Trevor had used to transport Elena when he had his human puppet kidnap her was the car that Rose drove into the parking garage so that Damon could get the answers he so desired. He carried himself cockily, and this was observed by both vampire sisters as he walked around the nose of the car holding himself tall.

"Back entrance. How convenient."

"That's the point," Rose replied. "We can't all have little daylight rings."

Damon waved his hand in front of his body to showcase the daylight ring he was so fond of. Rose turned and Delia followed by her side to walk to the back entrance of their meeting place. "How do you know this Slater guy's even here?"

"I called him," said Rose. Delia scoffed.

"And we shouldn't even have to do that. Slater practically _lives _here. It's his favorite hangout spot."

"Good." Suddenly, there was a _whoosh, _and Damon had Delia pinned up against his back with his hand on her throat for Rose to see. Rose turned around and observed Damon's sadistic look and Delia's annoyed one. "Just one thing. If either of you are setting me up in any way, I will rip one of your hearts out, shove it down your throat, and leave the other to an eternity of misery. It's something I'm very good at." He smiled.

But the corners of his mouth turned down as Delia vamp-sped out of his grasp and pinned him up against the exterior of the black SUV, careful not to chip the glossy paint job she'd just had done a month ago. Damon grunted as she nearly pulled his shoulder out of its socket.

"I'm getting quite bored with your threats. I'll admit, it was fun while it lasted, but now it's just annoying." She twisted his hand further up and Damon groaned from the pain. "My sister and I are both older _and _stronger than you. _Don't _get on my bad side."

She released Damon and he frustratedly shook his arm out of her grasp and turned around to meet the blaring eyes of his attacker. Rose stepped forward, not opposing her sister's threat, but rather leaving the violence to her younger sister and reassuring softly, "You can trust us."

Rose nodded at Damon, who studied her with a scowl on his face, and when Rose left towards the entrance to their meeting place, Delia followed after one last violent look towards Damon. However, she couldn't deny the physical appeal of the dark-haired Salvatore. He broke hearts left and right, she was sure of that. Lucky for her, she was a girl who liked a challenge. She believed that there were three important things on this Earth: blood, sex, and family. Though only two of them could be mixed without triggering some gag reflexes, all three were equally as important. That was her ideal on life, but every vampire had their differences.

Rose lead the group as they walked through the back entrance into the quaint coffee shop designed for vampires. Rose took off her jacket and sauntered inside as Delia came behind her, looking right through the open windows where the sun shone through. Damon looked at the two of them in alarm.

"Whoa! What about the, uh, sunlight?"

"Double paned and tempered," Rose answered. "UV rays can't penetrate. You see the appeal now?"

"That and the free wi-fi," someone interrupted them with a smile. Rose, upon seeing Slater, pulled him close with a smile as well and they embraced for a few moments while exchanging greetings. He pulled away from Rose and then hugged Delia as well, then looked back and forth between the two of them. "I saw you come. What are you doin' here?"

"Mm...it's a long story." Rose sighed. "But I want you to meet..."

Slater and Rose turned their heads to face Damon, who Rose was just about to introduce before Slater interrupted passionately. "Damon Salvatore! Turned 1864 in Mystic Falls by Katherine Pierce...aka Katerina Petrova." Damon, shocked, stayed silent as Slater turned to Rose and Delia. "So I take it I was right. What I told you about the tomb under the church is true?"

"Yes. It was right. Thank you for the tip."

Slater looked at Delia. "And you? Any luck finding Claire?"

"Plenty." Delia smiled sourly. Damon cut in promptly.

"You know Claire?"

"Clarissa King, now known as Claire, turned 1864 by Katherine Pierce just a few weeks before you and your brother." Slater turned to Damon and Damon gave the man a sour smile. "I know everyone. It's nice to meet you." He extended his hand and Damon shook it, all while skeptically cautious and freaked out by Slater's impossible knowledge. Seeing Damon's look, Slater amended his statement. "Maybe. What's...goin' on, Rose? Where's, uh, Trevor?"

Damon turned his head, realizing the situation that Rose was in, and Slater looked between Rose and Delia for an answer to find that the words unspoken meant more than ever.

* * *

Katherine told Claire and Elena more of the story, ending right when Rose had shoved her in a room to take her back to Klaus because she believed Trevor was mistaken in helping her. Elena shook her head, piecing together the story.

"Rose never ended up taking you back to Klaus, did she?"

"No. But not because she had a change of heart." Katherine looked up at Claire and finished the rest of her story with her eyes locked on Claire's. "She came to take me, like she said, but I tricked her into giving me her blood. When Trevor came back and distracted her by pleading his pathetic love for me, I took the rope she intended to use to tie me up and strung it up, put the noose around my neck, and..."

Katherine trailed off, shrugging to herself as if it were no big deal, but Claire and Elena both realized what this meant. Elena gasped and sat forward. "You killed yourself?"

"Klaus needed a human doppelgänger. As a vampire, I was no longer any use to him."

"But it didn't work," Elena realized. "You didn't really escape. You've been running from Klaus ever since."

"I underestimated his spirit for vengeance."

Claire snorted. "Talk about an ironic situation."

Katherine peered up at Claire, who said nothing more but bore a bitter smile on her face. Eventually, the doe-eyed vampire sighed and moved on. "Living out of a suitcase is better than dying so that you could have your blood spilled over some silly little rock." Elena avoided her doppelgänger's eyes, but Katherine was too smart not to notice. "What's wrong? Afraid I'm right? You don't wanna die? There's another way out." She looked down at her palm and used her fingernail to nick a vein. A small slash of blood appeared at the base of her palm and Elena turned her head. Katherine looked up dramatically. "You better hurry. Your opportunity's going, going, going...and gone." The human avoided her gaze, and Katherine just chuckled softly. "I made the other choice. I used Rose, Delia, and Trevor so that I could turn and I ran. And they knew Klaus would come after them."

"Typical Katherine," said the blonde.

"Rose, Delia, and Trevor spent the last 500 years running because you used them. Trevor just got killed!" Elena scolded.

"Never thought he would've lasted that long," confessed Katherine as she looked down at her family book and opened it. Elena looked at the vampire with incredulity.

"You don't even care that you ruined their lives."

This seemed to get to Katherine. She looked up into Elena's eyes and snapped, "I was looking out for myself, Elena. I will always look out for myself. If you're smart, you'll do the same."

* * *

Caroline's crunching was starting to get on Amelia's nerves. The older blonde watched as the young teenage girl ate her salad and Amelia snapped, "Did you ever learn manners? Or chew with your mouth open, why don't you?"

Stefan sighed, irritatedly awaiting as Caroline ate her meal and stalled them at the table in the middle of the Grill. Caroline flushed, embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm just so hungry. If I don't eat, I get those 'kill innocent people' urges. Tyler totally has those too, by the way."

Stefan leaned forward. "Yeah, what else did you say to him?"

"Not much. I was trying to keep the questions to a minimum." The younger Salvatore surveyed his friend in front of him and then leaned his elbows on the table, burying his head in his hands. Caroline pursed her lips. "Are you mad?"

"Yes, Caroline! As a matter of fact, I am a little mad," Stefan admitted. "I mean, you put yourself at risk! If Damon finds out—"

Caroline stopped him. "But you're not gonna tell him, are you?"

"Telling Damon would cause the next World War." Amelia leaned on the table as well and crossed her arms over them with a sigh. "No. We're not going to tell Damon but he's going to find out eventually." She turned her head to Stefan. "You think if Claire talks to him she can help?"

Stefan chuckled bitterly. "Claire would kill me if I asked her to talk to Damon again. We're going to have to figure this one on our own."

"What's the deal with Claire and Damon, anyways?" Caroline intervened with her voice a pitch higher than usual. She was desperately trying to stall, even though Amelia and Stefan didn't have a clue. "I mean everyone talks about their past but no one's ever really told me anything..."

"There's nothing to tell." Stefan shrugged. "Unless you'd rather me recount their million arguments over the past century."

"They're that bad?"

"Worse." Stefan nodded. Caroline shook her head.

"I don't get it. Why are they so mean to each other?"

"They were engaged." Amelia set down her glass of water and looked up at Caroline, who was staring with wide eyes. "Yep. Since they were about five or six. Arranged, obviously, but then they actually became best friends. Then something happened and...I don't even know."

"It was over a vase," Stefan recounted. "He broke a priceless vase in front of her bedroom in their house. Then she came over and broke my dad's drinking glass that was worth a fortune. The both of them had to deal with the consequences for the others' actions and ever since then, they've hated each other."

"Over a vase?" Caroline repeated, dumbfounded. Stefan nodded. "No! No way. That's ridiculous. It can't be true."

"It is." Stefan and Amelia said together. Caroline started to laugh and picked at her salad in attempts to distract them more, but Stefan sighed. "All right, we've gotta go."

"Wait!" Caroline stopped him and Amelia as they both braced to leave. "No! Um...what do we do about Tyler? I—I don't want Damon to kill him, 'cause there's a full moon coming up and Tyler's totally freaking out about it."

Amelia and Stefan had no choice but to divulge Caroline for a little while longer, and it became evident that she was stalling because every time Stefan tried to get up and leave, Caroline stopped him. Once they caught onto her act, it was dessert time, and Caroline gave a hum of appreciative approval as she stared down at the delicious treat in hunger.

"Okay." Stefan grabbed Amelia's hand and started to rise. "Enjoy your food, Caroline. Now we're leaving."

"Wait! Um..."

"Caroline, the cat's out of the bag." As they sat back down, Amelia turned to Caroline and gave her a pointed stare, concerned. "Why are you stalling?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'd believe the whole innocent act a little bit better if I didn't know how good you were at providing a distraction on demand," Stefan added. The young vampire fell silent. "Where's Elena?"

Caroline looked back and forth between the two vampires before her and eventually let out a frustrated sigh and mumbled, "She's with Claire."

"Where's Claire?" Amelia urged.

"I...can't tell you."

"You can't tell us? Are you kidding me?" Stefan exclaimed.

"I'm..._sorry _but I—I can't tell you."

Amelia's eyes were laser-focused on the young vampire sitting beside her and she tried to extract the information as efficiently as possible. "Caroline, I'm her sister. If she's in danger, you have to tell me. Claire was kidnapped by some...evil psycho bitch who wanted to torture her for however long she pleased. And _Elena _was taken so she could be a barter object for someone's freedom. Both of them could've been killed and if you know where they are, you need to tell us. Now."

"They're not in danger," Caroline promised as she looked towards Stefan. "Claire wouldn't let Elena get into any danger, you know that. And I wouldn't let Claire _or _Elena put themselves in danger."

"Put herself in danger where? What do you...?" Stefan trailed off, completely confounded for a moment, until he found an answer to his question that was just staring him in the face. "Claire's with...Damon, isn't she?"

"Ew! No!"

"Then where—where is she? Where's Elena?" he pressed. Caroline hung her head and he leaned forward. "Caroline, Clarissa is my best friend. She's Amelia's sister. And if you're really our friend, like you've been pretending to be all day, then you'll tell us where she is so we can find her and Elena and make sure they're safe."

She took a moment, but finally exhaled. "Stefan...Amelia...I am your friend. But I'm also Elena's friend and Claire's friend and...and Claire's been really, _really _good to me and she asked me to do her this favor and not tell you where she is. So...I'm sorry, but I'm not going to tell you where they are."

Stefan shook his head in disappointment, but Amelia just stood from the table. "Come on, Stefan. Let's go."

* * *

"So how much of your little story is true?" Elena asked as she got up from the ground and started to pace. Claire remained stationary with her back leaning against the stone wall of the cave.

"I have no reason to lie, Elena. I have no reason to do anything but sit here and read and rot."

"That's a lie right there." Claire scoffed. Katherine looked over her shoulder as she flipped through her family book. "You always have a reason to lie. Even when you sit there and read and rot."

"That's the reason why you came back, isn't it?" Elena blurted out, not giving Katherine a chance to respond to Claire. "Because you wanted to be the one to hand me over to Klaus."

Katherine shut the book and turned back to the two ladies in her company. "Mm...500 years on the run...I figured, maybe he'd be willing to strike a deal."

"So it wasn't just to ruin my life again?" Claire prompted, throwing a glance to the side at her enemy. Katherine's smile pecked at her lips.

"Not just."

"So you got Mason Lockwood to find you the moonstone," Elena interjected. Katherine looked up and nodded.

"Right again."

"What else is needed to break the curse?"

"Mm...look who's getting smarter."

"It's not just me...or the stone, is it?" Elena paced back and forth in thought. "Otherwise, there'd be no reason to trigger Tyler Lockwood's werewolf curse."

Katherine laughed. "Witches and their spells. So many ingredients, so many people to sacrifice..."

"So you need a werewolf?"

"Believe it or not, they're hard to come by."

"What else?" Elena pressed further.

"A witch to do the spell. Mine bailed, but Bonnie'll do just fine."

"What else?"

"Vampire." Katherine's eyes drifted to Claire, who slowly leaned off of the stone wall and back on both feet again, coming to the realization. The brunette shrugged. "I figured...I'd killed you once...now it was time to come back and finish the job."

"So why Caroline?" Claire demanded. "Why'd you turn her? There was no reason to—"

"There was plenty reason. I knew you never turned a vampire. I wanted you to know how it felt to have sired someone before you died."

Claire shook her head and chuckled softly. "No. No, you didn't. You wanted me to know how it felt to have sired someone so that, when I die, I would know that I'm leaving someone who needs me. Someone from my own blood. Someone who was turned by 'the strongest blood', like you said."

Katherine pursed her lips. "Caroline has the potential to be a very strong vampire if she so desires. And your blood...might have something to do with it."

"So when I died, you would take over." Claire configured, stepping closer. "And you'd train her to be a vampire stronger than anyone your age, wouldn't you?"

Her doe eyes sparkled. "Looks like you caught me."

"So you were just gonna hand us all over to be killed?" Elena continued, stepping up to Claire's side. "Claire, Tyler, Bonnie, and I...you were just going to trade us and take off with Caroline?"

The doppelgänger straightened and said simply, "Better you die than I."

* * *

Damon, Rose, Delia, and Slater all sat around a coffee table by the double-paned window Damon was informed of before. After the three settled down, Damon leaned forward on his arm.

"Here's what I don't get. Elijah moves around during the day, which means the Original People knew the secret of the day ring. Now, why would Klaus want to lift the curse of the Sun and the Moon?" he suggested.

"To keep the werewolves from lifting it," Slater explained. "If a vampire breaks the sun curse then the werewolves are stuck with the curse of the moon forever and vice versa."

"But werewolves are all extinct," Rose objected.

"True. I've never seen one, but rumor has it—"

Damon cut Slater off with a smile and caught the attention of all other vampires at their table. "Not such a rumor."

Slater looked up. "Mystic Falls? God, I've gotto visit this place. It sounds awesome!"

"It's not." Delia leaned back in her chair and folded her hands over her lap with a sigh as she looked at Slater, who waited for a clarification. "It's boring, it's small, and it's completely isolated from the rest of the normal population. Trust me, it's not worth the day trip."

Damon rolled his eyes and ignored Delia's comment. "Awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. Anyways, what about Claire?"

Slater shook his head. "What about Claire?"

The dark-haired Salvatore thought back to the night Katherine begged for him to get her out of the tomb and he repeated the words echoing inside of his head. "Katherine said something about her being the 'strongest'."

Slater was still confused, but it was in the opposite direction Damon would've thought. "She's a King..."

"So?" All other three vampires looked at each other at the table, making Damon feel incredibly left out. He surveyed the expressions on their faces and demanded, "If someone doesn't come clean right now, we're going to have a problem."

Rose looked at Delia curiously. "You mean to tell me that you never told them the truth? Even after we came to them to help?"

Delia threw up her arms. "I didn't know I was supposed to sign a goddamn blood pact, Rose! I thought they knew."

"No, you didn't." Rose turned to Damon. "My sister did not just take Clarissa for her revenge. We were going to hand Claire over as an apology. With her blood, breaking the curse would mean that vampires get even stronger. Strong enough to wipe out the entire population of werewolves if they so desire."

Damon raised his eyebrows. "Are we talking about the same Claire here?"

Delia groaned. "Yes, we're talking about the same Claire. The blood of a descendant of the King line can have an intense effect on a vampire and heightens their senses until the blood runs out of their system. Her blood, in addition to lifting the curse, would strengthen it."

"Well...can we stop the curse from being broken at all?" Damon inquired.

"What do you mean?" Slater asked.

"Well, if we rendered the moonstone useless and stopped the curse from being broken..."

"Well, yeah, probably...but why would you wanna do that?" Slater trailed off, surprised. Damon just gave the other male vampire a small smirk.

"Tell me how."

"You think I'm going to help you figure out how to do something that'll piss off an Original and keep me from walking in the sun?"

"You wanna walk in the sun?" the Salvatore prompted. "Well, I can make that happen, _if _you help us."

Slater opened his mouth to respond, but just then there was a loud crashing sound. Glass shattered everywhere, covering everyone inside of the coffee shop, and Rose, Delia, and Slater started to scream aloud as their skin started to boil from the heat of the sun. Damon looked outside, protected by the ring on his finger, and looked for an assailant. As Rose was able to get to a dark corner with the rest of the crowd exiting through the back, she shouted for her sister, earning Damon's attention back into the coffee shop. Though he was still distracted, Damon rushed forward and pulled a Rose's jacket off of the back of her chair and draped it over Delia's scorched body. Rose had already exited the building through the back and anxiously was waiting for her sister to make it out alive. Damon emerged with Delia in his arms, all battered from the prolonged exposure from the sun unlike her sister, who had gotten away early enough for the burns to heal quickly. Damon and Rose rushed to get Delia into the back of the black SUV.

"You're gonna be okay," Damon promised. Delia nodded as he set her down in the open trunk and she sighed.

"I know. I need a minute."

"Who was behind that?" snapped Damon to the pixie-haired vampire beside him. Rose shook her head and looked around. "I-I don't know. Where's Slater?"

"Iowa by now. Who the hell knows?"

"He's not behind this," Rose pushed. "He's a good guy, he wouldn't betray me and Delia like that."

"Then who did it?"

"It was Klaus!" Delia said briskly, pulling the attention back to her. The red on her skin was starting to fade, but there was pure hatred in her eyes. "It will _always _be Klaus because he will not rest until he finds that human doppelgänger of yours and he will take Claire too. Rose and I are already dead, but if you don't give him what he wants, you are too. We're all dead!"

And as she said her last, abrupt, cold word, Damon stared into the eyes of Delia and started to realize that it was not the time to underestimate who they were running from.

* * *

"Just give it up." Claire watched as Elena paced back and forth waiting for Katherine to show herself to them again as she'd disappeared earlier with her snide little comment about her self-preservation. The blonde crossed her arms at the human. "Elena, she's not coming back out here. She made herself clear."

"I need more," Elena pressed. "That isn't the end of the story. There's more to it."

"Every second we spend down here is literally _one _more shot that I could be having at the Grill right now," she mumbled.

Elena slapped her hands down to her sides when she finally realized that Katherine wasn't going to come back out and say anything else. "Fine. Fine, let's...let's go."

As Elena gathered her things, Claire gave a relieved smile and walked towards the exit of the tomb, just to watch as Stefan came down the stairs shouting out Claire and Elena's names. When she saw him, she raised an eyebrow.

"Stefan? What...how the hell did you find me?" Claire asked, her voice a pitch higher than usual. Stefan looked at the tomb entrance as Claire groaned frustratedly. "Caroline told you, didn't she?"

"No." Stefan shook his head and looked back at her. "She kept your secret from me and Amelia but we could only think of two places you would be with Elena that could potentially be dangerous. I came here."

Claire arched an eyebrow. "And Amelia? Where did she go?" Stefan shifted his eyes ever so slightly, but Claire frowned and realized immediately what he was thinking of. "No. I was not with Damon."

"Why would you keep this from me?" Stefan barreled on, ignoring her comment. "I could've been here—"

"You would try and stop me and you know it," Claire pointed out, earning silence from her friend. Claire looked back at Elena, who was idly standing behind her looking at them in the midst of their argument. "Besides...Elena needed answers and I wanted to help her get them. Even if it meant seeing..._her_."

"Whatever she said to you is a lie. She's a liar! You know that!" Now Stefan was intense, looking between both Claire and Elena at the appropriate times. Elena stepped forward.

"But what if she isn't? You didn't hear what she said," the doppelgänger argued.

Stefan walked around Claire to Elena. "Elena, you don't need to worry. I'm not going to let anything happen to you more than I'm going to let it happen to Claire." He turned back to the blonde vampire. "I said I'd keep you both safe."

"That's the problem," Elena snapped, earning Stefan's undivided attention. "You can't keep us safe, Stefan. You can't keep _me _safe. But I know you'll try and...and you'll die trying. How is that any better?"

A glimmer of hope and love shone in Elena's eyes for a brief moment, and a silent understanding passed between the two of them. Claire felt awkward witnessing such an intimate exchange right in front of her, especially considering the conflict of interest she had, but regardless, she didn't have much time to think about it before someone interrupted.

"There's nothing you can do, Stefan." Claire, Stefan, and Elena turned to watch Katherine as she neared the edge of her radius. Katherine looked down at Elena. "I haven't even told you the best part of the story. When I returned from England to be with my family...perhaps, to make them as eternal as I was, I walked into my cottage to find them all lying there, soaked in their own blood." Elena took in a sharp breath and looked at Katherine with compassionate and guilty eyes. "He killed them. My entire family, just to get back at me for running. Whatever you do to escape Klaus, he will get his vengeance. On your friends, your family, on anyone that you've ever loved."

"No." Stefan grabbed Elena's shoulders. "Look at me. Do not listen to her, okay?"

Katherine chuckled softly. "Always the protector. But even you must realize that she's doomed. There's nothing you can do to stop it." The vampire paused. "Unless, of course, you have this."

From inside of her arms, Katherine produced the clear rock that Damon had put into the tomb with her—the moonstone.

"What?" Elena breathed.

Claire sighed. "This doesn't even surprise me anymore."

"Oh, no. There it is!" Stefan exclaimed and pointed an accusing finger at Katherine holding the moonstone so powerfully in her hand. "It's the ultimate lie, sin't it. You spun this whole thing so that we would have to get the stone from you, didn't you?"

Katherine put the stone down. "I didn't spin anything, Stefan. It's the truth."

"No. Let me guess. You wanna trade that stone for your freedom? Hmm? You manipulative, psychotic _bitch_."

Katherine scoffed. "My freedom? That's where you're wrong, Stefan. I don't want my freedom! Because when Klaus shows up to kill us all, and he will, I'll be in the tomb, where no vampire will enter because they can't get out. I'll be the safest psychotic bitch in town."

And the brunette turned, going back into the darkness of her cave. But they were right about one thing; she did lie. Omitted the truth, rather, about one small little detail.

* * *

**Bulgaria, 1492**

_Katherine's hands shook as she stood over her mother's bloody body and cried, mourning for her entire family as they all gathered around her, their insides drained and their hearts dead. When Katherine finally pulled away from her mother's bloody body, her hands were stained with red and her eyes were wet with tears. But, suddenly, there was a voice. _

_"I'd express my dear condolences..." Katherine looked up to see her childhood friend, a girl she considered to be family, lick her lips free of her family's blood. She spoke in an English accent, but then again, she had always since her parents were originally from England. "But I sincerely could not help myself. Your brother, especially, was the most divine." _

_Tabitha King stood before Katherine, her blue eyes full of satisfied bloodlust. The tips of her blonde hair was stained with blood as well. Katherine, still wrought with despair, stood shakily to face her new enemy. _

_"Why would you do this, Tabitha?" Katherine nearly wept. "Why would you do this to my family?" _

_"Because he said to." Tabitha straightened to face Katherine in the eye. Her smirk haunted Katherine and would haunt her for the rest of eternity. "You ran from him, Katerina. And he will not rest until you are dead for your betrayal. I am here to give you this message and bring you back to England myself." _

_Katherine shook her head tightly and, from behind her, she broke off a piece of the bed's wooden footboard discreetly. "I won't go." _

_"Katerina, do not make this harder than it needs_—"

_"I won't go, Tabitha!" A certain amount of hatred burned in Katherine's eyes as she stared at the blonde-haired vampire in front of her. "You will have to kill me yourself." _

_Tabitha smiled wickedly. "So be it." _

_And she rushed forward, full vampire speed, and pulled her hands up above Katherine's head just about ready to twist her neck. Instead, Tabitha stopped just short of Katherine's cheeks, gasping and choking for air as she felt the life being sucked out of her. Looking down, Tabitha saw the piece of wood lodged in her chest cavity, and she could feel it as her heart started to wither and her skin shriveled. Katherine watched as her murderous friend collapsed to the ground with an ugly grey color coating her once flawless skin, and Tabitha's heart finally gave out. _

_But Katherine did not feel guilt; all she felt for Tabitha was hatred. So much of it, in fact, that she stared at Tabitha's face_—_the woman that had murdered her entire family for Klaus_—_and she remembered it. She would remember it for as long as she lived. _

And nearly 400 years later, that face would reappear in Katherine's life. Her name was Clarissa King.

* * *

Damon sat in front of the fireplace in the study with the entire distilled bourbon container, staring at the flames that flickered right before his eyes. He barely noticed it when company joined him.

"You should know that I'm sorry about today," Delia announced as she stood a few feet behind Damon. "I didn't know that was gonna happen."

Damon shrugged. "I believe you."

Delia bit down on her lip and tried to come up with the next words to say. She let out a deep sigh and inched forward, trailing her finger along the backside of the couch. "Look, I know you want to save Claire—"

"I will." Damon drank.

Delia grabbed a bourbon glass from behind the couch and started to walk over to Damon. "I'm not an idiot, Damon. I'm aware that you're not a fan of me. I did intentionally kidnap your girlfriend, of course."

"She's not my girlfriend." Damon looked up at Delia as she came up to him and extended her bourbon glass. With a sour frown, he poured some of the bourbon into her glass and handed it back to her. "She never has been."

Delia drank slowly, gulping down a large sum of alcohol at the end. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "You're right to fight it, you know. The way you feel about Clarissa, that is."

"And why is that? So she can't be happy?"

"So you can," the black-haired beauty told him bluntly. Surprised, Damon let his eyes drift up to hers but she started to walk around him. "As long as you love her, she will never love you back. You forget, I have seen Claire at her lowest point in time. I know the way she acts when she doesn't have any emotions at all. Guilt is her strong suit. Love...is not."

Damon turned around. "You knew her for...what, a year?"

"And during that year she killed the man that I wanted to turn into a vampire and spend the rest of my eternal life with." Delia sat down on the couch correctly, as Damon was sitting on the arm of it with his back twisted. "But I've realized now that torture is not the answer to my problem."

The elder Salvatore narrowed his eyes. "So what is?"

She set her glass down on the table behind the couch and locked gazes with him. "You are."

"Excuse me?"

"The way I see it, you have two options, Damon." Delia leaned back on the couch and crossed her legs, clearly in a position of comfortable power. "You can either sit and stare at that fireplace and consume an extremely large amount of alcohol while you wallow about how you will never be able to have the woman you love or...you can choose the other option."

It was self-explanatory. Damon could see the twinkle in her eyes, the way she twirled her hair, the extremely obvious body language that she'd had the moment that she stepped into the house. She didn't have to clarify her statement before Damon, with the thought reeling in his mind, flashed over to her just as she stood from the couch so they were inches apart. So many thoughts went on in Damon's head; primarily all of them were about Claire. But then he remembered what happened the night before, and he felt the pain inside of him from knowing that he took away his one chance to have his own selfish happiness just to let Claire have hers. And it hurt like hell.

So he leaned down as Delia reached up, and they kissed. It was nothing that Damon could get from Claire, but it was enough to make him forget about the woman who haunted his mind. He knew Delia's intentions weren't pure. He knew that this would eventually get back to Claire for Delia's own selfish reasons.

He just didn't care.

* * *

"Thank you," Claire told her sister as Amelia handed her a glass of scotch and sat down on the couch in the middle of the King's living room. Amelia nodded silently and Claire took a sip of the strong alcohol and let out a sigh of relief. "God, did I need one of these today."

"Why'd you go without me?" Amelia asked, confused. "I could've...helped you."

Claire shook her head. "You would've been worried about me, just like Stefan." She paused. "Which, quite frankly, I don't understand. I mean, first of all, I'm a vampire which automatically makes me pretty hard to defeat. Second of all, I just found out today that if I work at it hard enough, I could be one of the strongest vampires in the history of vampires. It seems like your concern is misplaced."

The younger blonde frowned. "You went down the rabbit hole to see the woman who killed you once and has attempted to kill you multiple times. Excuse me for my concern." Claire just kept drinking the scotch and Amelia sighed. "Where'd Stefan go?"

"He dropped Elena off at her house." Amelia silenced and Claire snuck a glance at her sister, slowly catching on. "Uh oh. Now I'm starting to get concerned."

"It's not important."

"Anything about you is important, Amelia." Claire leaned forward and set her glass down with a deep sigh. "Lately, _everything _has been about me. Not that I don't like it being about me, I just...I really could use a break."

Amelia laughed, unintentionally of course, but ended up shaking her head. "Seriously, Claire, I'm fine. I trust Stefan. I have to. He loves Elena." The younger King paused and corrected after a while, "_Loved _Elena. He _loved _Elena."

Claire bit down on her lip. "I hate to break it to you, sis, but love doesn't fade so easily. You and Stefan are a prime example."

"But you and Damon aren't." Amelia looked at her sister from the side, catching Claire off guard as she drank from her scotch again. Slowly, Claire put her drink in her lap as Amelia continued. "I mean...you did love him once. I assume he felt the same way about you."

Knowing what she knew, Claire didn't really know what to say. No one knew the truth besides her and Damon—no one knew everything that they had been through together. It wasn't just the night he kissed her or their unorthodox relationship, there were other moments in time where it wasn't so easy to just pretend that she didn't care for Damon at all. There was a small part of her that admitted the truth, but the larger part of her covered it up. Claire could not answer Amelia honestly, so she simply lied.

"You're right." Claire gulped down the rest of her glass. "Damon and I stopped loving each other a long time ago. It did fade easily. Hopefully, it goes the same for Stefan and Elena." She tilted her glass towards Amelia. "Please?"

* * *

Damon and Delia sat on the floor in front of the couch, both of them half-naked covered only by a thin blanket that was completely unnecessary because of the fireplace beside them. As Delia laughed at something Damon said to her with a smirk on his face, Rose barged into the room without warning to find her sister and the elder Salvatore lying before her just after their rendezvous. Rose paused for a moment, but she could hardly say she was surprised. Eventually, she sighed.

"Slater wants to know if you can get the moonstone," Rose whispered to Damon. "Can you?"

Damon nodded immediately and Rose told Slater that he could. "What's next?"

The two vampires on the floor overheard the other side of the phone. _"We need a witch. G-Get the moonstone. A-A witch should be able to figure out the rest. Good luck, Rose." _

Slater ended the call, and Damon, Rose, and Delia stared at each other as they plotted their next move.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please! I don't think it's too confusing, but I just wanted to make this clear: Tabitha King is an exact look-alike of Claire. Or, rather, vice-versa but the same rules apply. This does not mean that Claire is a doppelgänger. Unfortunately for you all, this won't really be entirely explained until the third season but Katherine will give a brief run-down about it in one of the next couple chapters. **

* * *

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Don't worry, there will be more 'awww' moments in the future.

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Sometimes I can be predictable, I know this. But sometimes I have a few tricks up my sleeve...

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**Savage Kill: **Haha definitely!

**NicoleR85: **Claire feels to guilty to really 'get back' at Delia for it. But she will have a few choice words. I haven't decided whether or not I want Claire to find out about Delia and Damon yet so we'll see.

**grapejuice101: **Thank you! Cordelia is actually a really awesome character to write with, I really enjoy her. Here's the update!

**Momsen-xxxx: **That is exactly the correct response. Honestly, I fell over laughing reading that because it's probably what I would say if this were someone else's story and they did that to me.

**Guest: **Oh she does. She definitely, definitely does :)

**Bella lugosi: **Same witty Claire, as usual, she just doesn't know that Damon's in love with her. Well, she does, but she hasn't heard him say it in her mind. Yes, that is a lot of questions. I can tell you that Christopher will _not _be happy about things when he returns to Mystic Falls. And Claire will have some choice words to say to both him and Damon when the time comes. Thanks for reviewing!

**beth**: Here's the update!


	24. The Sacrifice

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Sacrifice**

"For the record," Claire began as she followed Damon, Stefan, and Amelia promptly down the stairs of the tomb, "I this is a terrible idea."

"You didn't think it was such a bad idea yesterday when you went gallivanting in here with Elena," Damon pointed out with a small smirk, slowing so that Claire came to walk right up to his side. She crossed her arms defensively.

"Yeah...well...I still think this is a terrible idea. You know exactly what she's gonna say: get her out and she'll give us the moonstone." Claire scoffed, watching as Amelia and Stefan stepped towards the stone door of the tomb. Stefan sighed.

"Right now this is all we've got." He looked over at Amelia and nodded. "You ready?"

"Let's do it." She took the right side of the door and the two positioned their hands to pull the heavy stone out. "1...2...3."

Stefan and Amelia took the door out of the way and pushed it to the side of the tomb so that the entrance was clear and they could speak to who was inside. Damon and Claire stepped forward, standing between Stefan and Amelia as they peered into the dark tomb. Sure enough, Katherine rounded the corner eventually, her eyes stained with dark rings.

"Please...come on in. There's plenty of room for all of us," she quipped.

Amelia wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Never."

"I'd rather poke my eyes out," Damon agreed. Katherine groaned in disapproval.

"Mm...but they're such pretty eyes."

Claire rolled her own at the statement. "All right, Katherine, you know why we're here. Give it up, get it over with. Tell us what you want for the moonstone."

"Feel like tossing it over?" Damon added. Katherine shrugged at him.

"Tell you what; you get your little witch to hocus-pocus me out of here, you can have whatever you want."

None of them were surprised because...well, it was Katherine, after all. There was hardly a surprise anymore when it came to her and her mind games. Stefan just leaned against the side of the tomb entrance and put his arms over his chest. "I thought you liked it in here. Nice and safe where Klaus can't get to you."

"I've had time to reconsider," she whispered dryly.

"Meaning you're hungry," Damon translated. She cut her cold, black eyes towards him.

"I'm starving, Damon. And dirty. But above all, I'm bored. At least running from Klaus wasn't boring," she mumbled as she stumbled her way up to the entrance of the tomb, merely a few feet away from the four who sought her alliance. "So here's the deal: you get me out of here, you get the moonstone, and I'll disappear from Mystic Falls forever."

"Without Caroline," Claire added sourly. Katherine turned her blackened eyes to the blonde vampire a few feet away and just narrowed them into slits, watching as Claire negotiated. "And while I'm at it, that 'forever' you're promising isn't just a metaphoric 'forever'. Forever is forever. Mystic Falls doesn't exist after you leave."

"Fine." Katherine let out a hearty exhale, annoyed with the redundant terms of her agreement. "Without Caroline and _forever_. Let me know what you decide."

With a quick and drowsy smile, Katherine stumbled her way back into the darkness of the tomb without a word.

* * *

Elena pulled the front door open to find Claire and Damon on her front porch, accompanied by Stefan and Amelia behind them. Confused at the house call, Elena looked at Claire for an explanation, who spoke first.

"Hey, Elena. You have time for a chat?" It was hardly a question, but it was phrased like it regardless. Elena arched an eyebrow in bewilderment.

"Why?"

"We went to see Katherine," Damon explained. Elena looked back and forth between Claire and Damon and immediately realized what was going on.

She stepped aside from the threshold and nodded. "Come on in."

Once everything was explained to Elena about the conversation that went on in the tomb with Katherine, Stefan, Amelia, Claire and Damon watched as the human doppelgänger stared at the four of them with an impressive amount of incredulity in her eyes.

"You don't believe her, do you?" Elena scoffed.

"Of course not!" Damon exclaimed, reassuring her. "We just want the moonstone."

"According to Rose and Delia's friend, Slater, there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break," Stefan informed her.

"No spell, no doppelgänger sacrifice; ergo, you live." Damon tilted his head over to Claire next to him. "And this one sticks around to be snarky at everyone and the world keeps spinning."

Knowing she would give him a dirty look, Damon's eyes drifted up to meet that of his blonde companion's to found that pictured dirty look upon her face with a frown for good measure. She countered, "Your life would be incredibly boring without me and you know it."

"So how do you destroy the spell?" Elena moved on. Amelia answered her this time with a light-hearted voice, one much more appealing than the rest of her peers.

"By releasing the spell from the moonstone. Spell goes _poof_, moonstone's useless, and there's no sacrifice. Ta-da."

The human frowned and looked around her center island at the vampires. "How do you guys even know this is going to work?"

"'Cause we have a crafty witch on our side," Damon replied.

Elena sighed. "You...discussed it with Bonnie."

"She agreed to do anything she could to help us," the other brother informed her, defending their plan. Elena, however, wasn't buying any of it, and that was apparent to everyone.

"It's Katherine who has the moonstone, she's not gonna give it to you."

"We're gonna get it from her."

"Well, what he means to say is," Damon interrupted, adding onto his brother's statement, "that we will pry it from her cold, dead hand if we have to."

"Personally, I'm all for option two," said Claire.

"Bonnie just needs to find a way to release the seal long enough for us to get the moonstone and get out in time for her to return it," Stefan continued. Elena sat down at the center island and rubbed the back of her neck, clearly frustrated.

"Wow," she commented softly. "I mean, it sounds like you guys already have it all planned out."

"Yep!" Damon exclaimed. "We're awesome."

"No, _we _are awesome." Claire made a triangle formation to her, Amelia, and Stefan, excluding Damon intentionally with a small smile on her lips. Damon chuckled under his breath.

"Come on, sugar, your life would be _incredibly _boring without me and you know it."

She scoffed. "Now that's just what you think."

"I don't want you to do it," Elena cut in, bringing them back on topic. Everyone in the room went silent, her words causing them all to become extremely and hopelessly confused.

Stefan began, "Elena, what are you talking about? We don't have a choice..."

"What about Klaus?"

"We'll find him right after we get the moonstone."

"Is that before or after he kills everyone that I care about, including all of the people standing in this kitchen right now?" She practically snapped, looking at every single one of the vampires in the room with her, who were touched at the sentiment, but also dumbfounded as to why she would worry about them when it wasn't their lives on the line, with the exclusion of Claire.

"Elena, if we can de-spell the moonstone, we can save your life." Claire stepped forward, her arms crossed over her chest with a concerned expression on her face. "Not to mention mine and...Tyler's. We wanted our out, _this _is it."

"I know." Elena got up from the stool on the island and started out of the kitchen while mumbling, "Everybody keeps saying that."

She left the vampires to show themselves out, refusing to talk any more about the situation because she did not agree at all with what anyone was saying at that point. When she thought everyone had gone and an idea had formed so solidly inside of her head, Elena went downstairs with the intent to go find someone she thought would help. She wanted to enlist someone, Claire, perhaps, but she knew that Claire wouldn't be on her side with this one.

Only, when she went downstairs, a vampire was waiting for her. A vampire with long, blonde hair and impossibly determined grey eyes. Amelia was leaning against the staircase and watched as Elena, skeptical as she was, descended the last step of the staircase and walked over to the coat rack in the corner.

"I thought you all left..." Elena trailed off, finding the situation to be more than awkward. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was still irrevocably in love with Stefan, and seeing him with Amelia, knowing what was happening that they hadn't talked about, killed her. She didn't have anything against Claire's sister as a person, but out of natural default, she didn't feel comfortable around her.

Amelia nonchalantly straightened. "They did. I didn't." Elena turned around with a skeptical look still in her eyes. "Come on, Elena. It's very easy to tell when you're plotting. You and Katherine have a very similar tell. What are you up to?"

Elena shrugged. "Nothing."

She frowned. "You don't have to lie to me. I might've come in here with Stefan, Damon, and my sister this morning, but honestly, their plan is half-baked. I think Claire just wants this curse thing to be over with because she always underestimates the seriousness of these types of situations. I'm gonna do what I can to protect her so...what are you up to, Elena?"

The human took a moment, deciding whether or not to trust Claire's sister. On one hand, she felt that there was no need for distrust; if Amelia's only fault was that she fell in love with Stefan long before Elena knew him, that wasn't an issue of trust. The compassionate, calm Elena knew that. The other side of Elena, the more irrational side, wanted to cut her out just because she felt angry at Stefan for loving someone other than her.

But she did the right thing, and she sighed while opening the door for them and explaining her plan. A few minutes later, Amelia and Elena arrived back at the boarding house, where all was luckily quiet since Claire, Stefan, and Damon were too busy rounding Bonnie up for the tomb spell. Once they walked inside, they were greeted by Rose, coming from the direction of the right with a glass of blood in her hands.

"Ah, Amelia. Elena." She approached them with a soft smile and confused eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"We—" Elena started, but was promptly interrupted by a louder voice.

"Damon, is that you? What kind of sheets do you have on your bed? 600 thread count? That was literally the best sleep of my entire exist—" Delia stopped short at the foyer to see her sister, Amelia, and Elena watching as she flamboyantly presented herself in an indecent robe. Delia frowned at them. "I mean, I knew you didn't bring Damon along, but would it really have been too much of a hassle to include Claire so there was _some_ point to that?"

As Elena's eyes widened and her heart literally broke for her friend realizing what Damon had done, Amelia turned to Delia with a scoff. "Pretending to have slept with Damon? Come on, now, that's just downright pathetic."

"It's only pathetic if I'd actually had to pretend." Delia leaned against the wall beside her with a courteous smile. "Feel free to relay this information to your lovely sister."

Amelia, now shocked, took in a deep breath. "You did this just to make her suffer? What kind of a person are you?"

"A satisfied one." Her eyes flickered to all of the women in the room. "You'd be surprised how talented Damon Salvatore really is."

"Cordelia," Rose warned her with a disappointed voice. "Please. Do us all a favor and make yourself a little more presentable."

"Fine." After rolling her eyes, Delia walked off in the direction she came from to get dressed. Rose, absolutely embarrassed by her overly promiscuous and vengeful sister, looked at Amelia and Elena without a spoken apology, knowing that it was understood unspoken.

"Sorry, Damon, Stefan, and Claire aren't back yet if that's what you came here for," Rose told them as she finished her blood breakfast.

"Actually...we came to see you," Elena informed her, causing Rose to immediately become suspicious. Once Delia was back downstairs in clothes, Elena relayed her apparently foolproof plan to the two older vampires. Rose, however, was not a fan of it.

"It's a bad idea," she told the human.

"No, it's not. From what Stefan told me, your friend Slater obviously has more information about Klaus. You and Damon just gave up before you got it."

"Somebody blew up a bloody coffee shop with us inside of it!" Delia snorted. "I don't know about you, cupcake, but that's the international sign to stop digging your nose into someone else's business!"

"Elena thinks there's more to learn," Amelia said to them quietly. "And...we just have to find a way to learn it."

"Why are you coming to us with this?" Rose inquired. Elena shrugged nonchalantly.

"Because you owe me. One word from me and Damon and Stefan could've killed you for kidnapping me. Not to mention, Claire, too."

Delia rolled her eyes again. "We don't owe anyone anything. Damon and Stefan could try to have us killed but I can assure you, little doppelgänger, they don't have what it takes. Let's be honest here." She rose from her position on the arm of the couch closest to the fireplace and sighed, turning back at Elena with a knowing look. "You're asking us because you can't go to Damon and Stefan for it because they wouldn't want you to do this. And this drama with the moonstone that Claire is participating in is the perfect chance to do what you want right underneath their noses."

"We're having a disagreement, okay?" Elena snapped. "They're willing to risk everyone that I love, and I'm not."

"And if there's something that can prevent Claire from becoming a vampire power-drink, I'd love to figure that out as quickly as possible, thank you," Amelia quipped with a grimace. Rose sighed.

"Elena, they're just trying to protect you."

"And you've proven that you couldn't care less whether I'm protected or not. So we're back to you taking me to Slater."

"Hold on a second." Delia held up her hands with a scowl. "You just said that we couldn't care less whether you're protected or not. Well, cupcake, _I _don't care whether Clarissa King is turned into said vampire power-drink, so why would I help you protect the one woman that I don't want to be protected?"

"Because you slept with Damon," Elena countered, looking up at Delia with hard eyes and a quick smile. "And if you don't help us and she dies because of it, he'll kill you...no matter how strong you are."

When everything in the room fell silent, Rose sat down on the other side of Elena to capture her attention with a long-winded sigh. "What exactly do you hope to achieve by this?"

"Does it matter?" Amelia scoffed, looking between Rose and Delia, who was over her shoulder. Making sure to look back and forth at both sisters, she ignored Rose's question for Elena because, simply, they were wasting daylight. "Look, I certainly didn't expect you two to help us without a price. So how about, in exchange for your aid in finding Slater, Elena and I will see to it that you are _both _able to walk during the day?"

Delia tensed and walked forward. "Rose and I have been slaves to the shadows for 500 years. You say jump, we say how high? Metaphorically, of course." She shrugged. "I don't jump."

And as the room fell silent with this deal on the table, Delia gave them an innocent smile.

* * *

"I might be able to lower the tomb spell long enough for you to get in there and grab the moonstone from Katherine," Bonnie assured Stefan, Claire, and Damon as she, Jeremy, and the vampires all gathered around in the empty Salvatore Boarding House.

Jeremy looked at her with concerned confusion. "How? It took both you and your Grams last time and look what happened to her."

"I'm well aware of what happened," the witch countered softly. "But I've leaned a few new things."

"Bonnie..."

Bonnie ignored Jeremy's interruption and looked at Stefan. "How will you get it?"

"She hasn't been feeding. She's weaker. We're not." Damon and Claire tapped their blood glasses together, giving Bonnie the silent explanation with their smiles. Stefan, too, was chocked full of rich, hearty human blood in moderation.

"You wouldn't be underestimating her, would you?" Bonnie accused them.

"It's a plan. Is it perfect?" Damon scoffed at his own statement. "What plan is?"

"Let me do it!" exclaimed the young Gilbert from the corner of the room, thinking he'd had a brilliant idea. "I've got my ring. I can get in, get out, no spells necessary."

"Gee, thanks, you 16-year-old child. Why didn't we think about that?" Damon commented in a snide tone. He narrowed his eyes at the young one. "Why are you even here? Where's Blondie?"

Claire licked her lips free of the human blood she'd drank. "Which one? Because I'm right here and Caroline's off...doing something and Amelia's..." She paused and pursed her lips. "Truthfully, I have no idea where my sister is."

"Maybe I can help better the plan," Bonnie interrupted, trying to move the meeting along as quickly as possible. "Do you have anything that belongs to Katherine?"

Claire smiled bitterly. "You mean _besides_ the hatred in my heart?"

But despite the side-comment from the unserious vampire in the room, Stefan did have something of Katherine's. He went upstairs and was down in less than five minutes, holding a metal picture with Katherine's portrait on it. Bonnie turned around once seeing Stefan's returned and he let out a deep sigh.

"This belonged to Katherine. Found it with her things after I thought she was dead, but...it was hers."

Bonnie took the picture while the room fell silent and she set it inside of a bowl she had ordered Damon to retrieve for her along with a glass of water. Without another word spoken, the young witch took her fingers, dipped them into the cold water, and sprinkled it lightly on the picture before inhaling sharply, where the bowl underneath her fingertips lit up a bright orange from the flames she'd ignited by her magic. As the fire flickered around them, Bonnie began to chant her spell softly.

"What will this do?" asked Damon.

"I can turn the metal to ash," she explained. "Blow the ashes on her and it'll incapacitate her for a minute or two. Long enough for you to get the stone and get out."

No one noticed around her because they were too focused on plans to get ready for Katherine's takedown, but Bonnie felt a warm blood trickle down onto her lip, and she quickly raised her hand to wipe it off. Discreetly, she realized that it was blood, and she removed all evidence before anyone could see and call their brilliant plan off. Right after she did so, Claire, Stefan, and Damon all went in opposite directions to get supplies to incapacitate Katherine in other ways if needed and also to get supplies for the spell lifting of the tomb.

* * *

Rose and Delia took Elena and Amelia to a large, deluxe apartment which was also seemingly older than most that they knew was Slater's. Determined to get their reward for showing Elena and Amelia to their request, Rose knocked on the door.

"Slater? Slater, it's Rose. Open up!" There was no answer, so Rose turned to Elena with a shake of her head. "He's not home. Sorry."

The human held up her hand and shook her head. "Mm-mm. No. We didn't come all the way out here for nothing."

Elena made a silent gesture for the vampires to bust open the door, but Rose and Delia were both reluctant and annoyed that they had to go through so many trials to win Elena's prize. Instead of making the two older vampires do it, Amelia just brushed past them with a sigh and broke the chain locking the door on the other side instead so that the double doors to the apartment swung open for them. The blonde made a grand gesture to the vampires and human beside her.

"There? Was that so hard? No? Okay, then. After you." Amelia shot a bitter smile to Delia, who just rolled her eyes and walked forward. Elena and Amelia followed them inside.

"Slater?" Delia called out upon their entrance. Rose and Delia walked forward, side-by-side, but it was Rose who spotted it first, since she was closest to it. Her jaw fell open at the sight.

"I don't think he's going to be much help..." Rose trailed off. Delia rounded her sister to stand on the other side of her and gasped once seeing Slater's dead body on the floor. Elena rushed forward, Amelia following closely behind, and they all stared at the desiccated vampire in disappointment.

Rose and Delia went to drag the body elsewhere as Elena ran a hand through her hair, partially disappointed and partially sad and frustrated, exhaling lightly, "God..." Turning in the other direction, she walked over to the huge desk at the curtained windows of the apartment and grabbed a bunch of papers lying around. "It looks like whoever blew up the coffee shop found him and killed him for his information."

"Yeah. Probably to stop him from helping people like us," Rose murmured. Delia scoffed.

"The guy was a living, breathing vampire encyclopedia. You know what they say about people with too much information. It was inevitable." As Rose walked over to the windows, Delia reached forward on the desk and looked at a picture of Slater with a sigh. "It still sucks, though."

Rose pulled the shades by the windows aside, bringing light into the room. Amelia protested immediately, "Um...hello, hate to burst your bubble but there's no daylight ring on your finger yet!"

"Tempered glass," Rose explained, as if she'd done it a thousand times. She looked out the window longingly. "UV rays can't penetrate. I used to just come here and watch the day."

Elena grabbed the picture Delia had been looking at and instantly felt bad for the two vampires. "I'm sorry about Slater."

Rose turned her head without a response. "Any luck?"

Elena set the picture down, embarrassed, and got back on task. She leaned down to get into the computer and tried to type in a password, but it came up incorrect. She sighed heavily. "It's password protected. I can't get in."

Delia sighed. "Then this whole entire trip is pointless, let's go. We still get our daylight rings, though."

Before Amelia or Elena could respond to the statement, there was suddenly a sound in the other room. Fearing it to be the intruder that killed Slater, Rose stopped everyone from going to check it out with a simple, "Stay here." She walked over to the door the sound came out of and she peered inside while Amelia, Elena, and Delia waited to find out who was in there. Suddenly, Rose said confoundedly, "Alice?"

"Rose!" A dark-haired girl dressed in black rushed out of the room and threw herself into Rose's arms and sobbed. "He's dead!"

Alice sobbed into Rose's arms for about fifteen minutes while Elena made some tea in the kitchen with the company of Delia and Amelia. After a while, Rose joined them just as Elena was divvying up the hot tea for them all, and she looked around at all three of them and sighed. "She found him a few minutes before we did."

Elena felt sorry for the other human, honestly. "How is she?"

"Overreacting. Big time," Rose snorted.

"Her boyfriend just died!" Elena defended Alice, even though she didn't know her at all. There was a place of compassion she drew from, however. "There's no such thing as overreacting."

Delia was the one who responded with a whisper, "This might be extremely hard for you to process, cupcake, but there are people out there in this world who actually _want _to be come a vampire. Alice was one of them; she only dated Slater so he would turn her."

Amelia wrinkled her nose. "I hate those kinds of humans. Adam Silverman, 1924. He was French, I was young..." She let out a sigh and grabbed a cup of tea that was steaming hot and brought it to her lips. "Little bastard."

But Elena, with a deep exhale, took a cup of tea she'd poured and turned out of the kitchen toward Alice. She handed the small cup to her and, as the vampires in the kitchen listened to them, she began a conversation with Alice.

"Thank you," said the dark-haired human as she took the tea and looked up at Elena while she sat down. "You look...really familiar. Did you know Slater?"

Elena shook her head. "Not personally, no. I just knew that he kept detailed records of all his vampire contacts and my friend and I were hoping he could point me towards Klaus."

"Doubtful. Klaus doesn't want to be pointed out," Alice told her.

"Do you know Slater's computer password?"

"Are you _seriously_ asking me that right now? I just saw my boyfriend with a stake through his heart!"

"I understand that. Do you know his password?" Elena pushed, refusing to give into the theatrics of a self-absorbed girl who wanted to throw her life away for something as terrible as vampirism. Alice, too, was disgusted at the girl.

"Who do you think you are?"

"I think I have three vampire friends in that kitchen." Elena looked up at found all of the said vampires listening to her conversation, their ears perking up hearing Elena's statement. "And, I think, that I can get one of them to turn you into a vampire. Will you show us his files, then?"

Of course, Alice agreed, and minutes later, they were at the computer logging into Slater's files. Alice gave a frustrated sigh. "Someone's been here. The hard drive's completely wiped out."

"Yeah, probably whoever killed him," Rose reminded them.

"Lucky for you, Slater was paranoid. Everything's backed up on a remote server," Alice continued, moving to the computer on the left side.

As Alice fought her way through the password protection, Amelia leaned down and whispered to Elena, "Hey, about that little consolation prize you so generously decided to give to her...you do know that none of us are going to give our blood to a vampire-junkie, right?"

"I know." Elena shrugged. "She doesn't."

"'Kristen Stewart.'" Alice rolled her eyes. "God, was he obvious."

Elena peered over her shoulder to look at the files Alice had accessed, and she blinked at the amount of folders. "These are all links to vampires?"

"Slater was obsessed. Almost as much as me."

"What about that one?" Rose spoke up from the back. "Cody Webber. We exchanged dozens of e-mails about Elijah."

"I could...call him," Alice suggested. Elena reached down and grabbed the phone at the desk, handing it to Alice promptly.

"Tell him that we're trying to send a message to Klaus. The doppelgänger is alive and she's ready to surrender."

"What?!" The sound nearly came from all three vampires in the room, while Alice just laughed and looked up at the brunette standing above her with a smile slapped on her face.

"Oh, my God; I knew I recognized you!" Alice exclaimed.

"Get him the message, please," Elena snapped and walked off to the kitchen. Amelia, furious that she was an accessory to Elena's downright insane plan, followed the human back into the kitchen to find her standing over the counter, exhaling out loud as if she were nervous or something, but this was all her idea. Angrily, Amelia reached forward and grabbed Elena's arm for her attention.

"What the hell, Elena? What are you doing? This wasn't the plan!"

"Yes, it was." Elena snatched her arm back. "I'm getting Klaus's attention."

"No!" Amelia hissed. "No, you're trying to get yourself killed! These vampires are going to come and they're going to take you and they're going to hand you over to Klaus and he will use you in the sacrifice ritual! You will _die_!"

"And Claire won't," Elena said softly. Amelia's eyes widened. "You wanted Claire to be safe; this is the way. When they come to take me today, they won't ever find Claire in Mystic Falls and she won't have to die. Not to mention the fact that everyone else will be safe."

Amelia gritted her teeth. "You mean to tell me this was all a suicide mission to save everyone back home? Elena, Stefan is going to kill me for this!"

"No, he won't." Elena said the words quietly, and Amelia realized exactly what the young human was feeling. She was about to open her mouth to respond when Alice barged into the kitchen and looked at Elena.

"Cody is on his way. And he _really _wants to meet you."

* * *

"Sorry I'm late," Bonnie apologized as she walked up to Damon, Stefan, and Claire at the entrance to the tomb. "I had to grab the Grimoire from home."

Damon smirked. "Jeremy couldn't take the pressure, huh?"

Bonnie raised her eyebrows, concerned. "He said he'd be here..."

But she didn't waste time dwelling on the fact, but rather walked down the steps to the tomb with Stefan and Claire. Damon was about to follow when he heard his phone ring in his pocket and saw that Amelia's Caller ID was on the screen. He answered it promptly.

"Blondie, where've you been? You disappeared on us. Look, now's not such a good time—"

_"Damon...don't be angry with me," _Amelia begged, her voice soft and quiet. Hearing the words, Damon froze and listened to her. _"I would've called Claire, but she would've been...furious, and I can't call Stefan, so I decided to call you." _

He rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks. I feel appreciated. What did you do now?"

She let out a heavy sigh. _"Get in your car and come to Richmond. Now." _

But while Damon was on the phone, Stefan, Claire and Bonnie all moved down the steps and into the tomb ground, where Stefan bent down to set up the torches for Bonnie's spell. Claire looked at the open tomb that lost light after the first few feet, but when she stepped closer, she found something odd in front of her by her feet. Looking down, she saw a clear stone that looked like the moonstone.

"What the hell..." Claire bent down and picked up the clear stone from the floor, finding that it _was _the moonstone at a closer look. Bonnie rushed forward seeing the clear stone in her hand.

"Is that the moonstone?" the young witch inquired. Stefan stood up and walked to Claire, taking the moonstone out of her hand in wonder. Katherine wouldn't just toss the moonstone outside of the threshold because it was her only leverage, so what the hell was it doing—

"I hate to interrupt." Katherine caught all of their attentions as she appeared at the threshold of the tunnels and caught the eyes of the witch and vampires. "But today's just been full of surprises."

Suddenly, Katherine yanked Jeremy out of the shadows and it became clear that there was blood on Katherine's lips; and that blood on her lips had come from Jeremy, obviously, and had brought the color back to her flesh. Stefan rushed up to the threshold but stopped himself short while Bonnie peered inside with a shocked and anxious expression.

"I'm sorry," Jeremy mumbled at them. "I took some powder."

"Don't worry!" Katherine exclaimed. "I know that he's wearing his ring, so no matter how many times I kill him, he'll just keep coming back for more...so, I'm gonna be in the back playing with my little toy." She shoved him to the side and looked at Claire, Stefan, and Bonnie. "You guys just give me a holler when you've got the tomb open."

Stefan, defeated, turned around at Claire and Bonnie and gave them a frightened look. Claire crossed her arms angrily.

"I _told_ you this was a bad idea."

From then on, everything was at a rushed pace. Stefan ran all over like a chicken with his head cut off and Bonnie was desperately trying to get the spell started. Claire went up to the ground level to find Damon, but she came up with no luck and went down back into the tomb, just as Stefan asked aloud, "Where the hell is Damon?"

"He's not up there," Claire told him. "But we can't wait. We have to get Jeremy out."

"If she's fed, she has her strength back," Stefan reminded them. Bonnie, realizing that this was an issue, turned and grabbed the bag of ash that was left from what Jeremy had used on Katherine.

"We still have what's left of the ash. Do you think you can get close enough?"

"I don't have a choice," Stefan responded. But Claire reached forward and snatched the bag from his hand.

"You're not going in there, Stefan. Even on human blood, you're twice as weak as a regular vampire because it's not your regular diet. I'm stronger, I'll handle her." She looked up at Bonnie. "How long will it take you to get the seal down?"

"I-I don't know, a while."

Stefan and Claire exchanged a glance, but Claire looked back at Bonnie and nodded. "All right. Just get me in there as soon as you can."

Bonnie nodded, and minutes later, she started the spell.

* * *

Elena walked out from the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand as she waited for Cody Webber to arrive and take her to see Klaus. She spotted Alice by the window staring behind her, but without a thought, Elena turned around to go find Amelia when she found Damon standing right behind her. She gasped out of surprise and watched him as he grimaced.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" she repeated. Amelia stepped forward behind Elena, and she turned around to see the blonde King and raised her voice at her. "You called him?"

Amelia shook her head. "No. You don't get to be angry with me, Elena. You manipulated me into going along with this plan."

"I did it so Claire could live!" Elena shouted. Damon groaned behind her.

"_Bullshit, _Elena. This whole thing is a just some silly little suicide mission."

"Damon Salvatore!" Alice exclaimed as she came up beside Elena with Delia by her side. Damon furrowed his eyes at the wide-eyed human basking in his presence.

"Get rid of her," he demanded Delia.

With a sigh, the dark-haired vampire took the human away as Alice breathed out with a smile on her lips, "No...way..."

"Come on." Damon gestured towards the door. "Get your things, Elena. We're leaving."

"No."

"I said we're leaving!"

"No. I'm not going with you."

"Look at me, Elena, I am doing you a huge favor right now." Damon gave her a bitter smile and looked over at Amelia. "She did you, one, too, because if Amelia had called her sister instead of calling me, Claire would be kicking your ass out of that goddamn door for making such a _stupid _decision."

"It's not a stupid decision, Damon."

"Yeah? Well, from now on, why don't you not make any decisions, then, okay? Now move."

"When have I ever made a decision?" Elena prompted him furiously. "Everyone else did that for me—you, Stefan, Amelia, Claire...you all try to make decisions for me even though I'm not even relevant to your lives anymore! Now this? This is my decision."

"Relevant to our lives?" Damon repeated with a scoff. "What the hell are you talking about? 'Relevant to our lives'...Elena, just because you stopped seeing my brother doesn't any of us want some evil, psychopathic Original Vampire coming to town and killing everyone left and right over some stupid curse. All we're doing is trying to save you!"

"You're not listening to me, Damon; I don't want to be saved." Damon stared at her with confused eyes. "Not if it means that Klaus is going to kill every single person that I love. One of those people happen to be someone that _you _love, too."

Damon growled under his breath, "I swear to God, Elena, you use that sentence against me one more time, and I _will _kick your ass out of that goddamn door myself. This isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship. Now I'm gonna go do a little damage control. When I get back, we're leaving. No discussions this time."

And, without being able to protest against him, Damon turned on his heel and walked in the direction that Alice and Delia had gone, leaving Elena furious with Amelia, the cause of her fury, right at her side.

* * *

Stefan and Claire watched as Bonnie stood in the center of the circle that was lit with flames while she chanted her spell. Suddenly, the flames jumped a few centimeters higher, causing them to witness the flickering of the stretch. Katherine came out of the darkness of the tunnel, shoving Jeremy along with her.

"Ooh, something's happening!" Katherine exclaimed enthusiastically. While Stefan and Claire observed Katherine, Jeremy had his eyes set on Bonnie with an extremely worried expression on his face.

"Bonnie, no!" He looked at Claire and Stefan and rushed out, "You have to stop her, she's not strong enough!"

Jeremy struggled against Katherine's all-too-tight grasp, but Katherine was more focused on the concentrated Bonnie surrounded by the flames.

"Maybe she is," Katherine murmured under her breath, impressed at the little Bennett witch. Stefan, however, was growing increasingly worried with Jeremy's protests and the blood that started to trickle down the witch's nose.

"Bonnie..." Stefan stepped forward and tried to get the witch to stop. "Bonnie..."

"You gotta stop her!" Jeremy shouted, but was put down by Katherine who elbowed him in the face. Claire looked back, facing Katherine's cold, heartless eyes, and they didn't say anything to each other but rather stared. Stefan pleaded for Bonnie to stop, and suddenly Bonnie dropped to the floor. Claire rushed over to the witch on the other side of Stefan over the unconscious girl.

"Bonnie!" Claire grabbed the Grimoire out of Bonnie's hands to make it easier to try and shake her back to consciousness. "Bonnie! Wake up!"

"Yes, please, because I'm still in here!" Katherine sang irately inside of the tunnels. Bonnie slowly came back, her movements delayed and her eyes blinking a few times to get adjusted. Stefan and Claire helped her up.

"Are you okay?" Stefan asked. "Here. Are you all right?"

"It...it didn't work," Bonnie whispered as she cried. "I'm not strong enough. Even with help, I can't do it."

"Aw...that's too bad. I'm still hungry!" Katherine held no compassion within her as she forced Jeremy to stand and barred her fangs, plunging them into Jeremy's neck as soon as she finished declaring her never-ending hunger. Bonnie screamed out Jeremy's name and, in the midst of all the confusion and blood, Claire somehow found herself inside of the tomb, pushing Jeremy out of it as she kept Katherine pinned up against the cave wall. Jeremy rolled out to the floor and Katherine snarled with her fangs barred, shoving Claire off of her. Stefan stared at Claire and Katherine with the realization and shock in his eyes while Bonnie and Jeremy cradled each other on the floor and stared as well.

It was then that it sank into Claire when she looked at Katherine and inside of the tomb around her: she was stuck.

* * *

Damon swung open the doors of the master bedroom Rose had found Alice in earlier. "Time to go. Alice is soundly sleeping and won't remember a _moment _of this horribly stupid day—"

Suddenly, the doors of the apartment swung open, and in came three vampires in a triangle formation, staring at Amelia, Damon, Rose, Delia, and Elena intently.

"We're here to meet the doppelgänger," said one of the vampires, assumed to be Cody Webber. Elena nodded.

"Thank you for coming." She tried to walk forward, but Amelia shoved her back furiously.

"Don't you _test _me right now, Elena. I may not be Claire's sister but I can get violent when I want to."

Damon said loudly to the vampires awaiting to be met with Katherine's look-alike. "There's nothing here for you."

Before anyone could reply to Damon's statement, there was a snap and a groan of pain, and all vampires looked behind them to see a well-dressed man standing behind the dead third vampire. Damon, Amelia, Elena, Rose, and Delia all instantly recognized it to be the person that they thought was long gone: Elijah.

Elena gasped, and everyone widened their eyes as if seeing a ghost. There was a gust of wind, and suddenly, Damon and Amelia were the only vampires left protecting Elena.

Damon narrowed his eyes at Elijah. "I killed you. You were dead."

"For centuries now," Elijah deadpanned and looked at Cody Webber. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" Cody replied.

"I'm Elijah."

Cody's face immediately turned down. "We were going to bring her to you. For Klaus. She's the doppelgänger. I don't know how she exists, but she does. Klaus would want to see her."

Elijah stared at Elena, but asked the vampire in front of him, "Does anyone else know that you're here?"

"No." The response was immediate from Cody's lips. Elijah smiled.

"Well, then you have been incredibly helpful." Without warning, Elijah plunged his hands into the chests of the remaining two vampires looking to take the doppelgänger to Klaus, and the bodies of the vampires dropped while the hearts remained in Elijah's hands. Elijah threw the bloody organs down and looked at Elena, Damon, and Amelia. Damon and Amelia created a barrier in front of Elena, ready to fight the Original, but for seemingly no reason at all, Elijah fled them.

* * *

Elena sighed heavily to the two vampires as they walked her up to her front door. "Thank you both for bringing me home."

"Don't thank me," replied Amelia. "Thank Damon. If it weren't for him, we would've been stranded in Richmond with no ride because of Rose and Delia."

"They were just scared. They didn't mean to run," Elena defended them. Damon snorted.

"Yes, they did. They've been running for 500 years."

Elena moved on from the subject and opened her front door. "I can't believe Elijah's alive. Why do you think he killed those two vampires and just...let us go?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "If I had a dollar for every time some evil vampire surprised me. Go get some rest, Elena. It'll wash away the stupidity of what you did today."

She frowned at him as she crossed the threshold. "The only thing that I did that was stupid was that I got caught."

Without saying goodnight to either of them, she slammed the door in Amelia and Damon's face. The two vampires gave a frustrated sigh and started to walk down the porch steps.

Amelia, feeling the awkwardness of the air around them, decided to say something that was on her mind. "So...speaking of Claire—"

"We weren't."

"We are now. Are you going to tell her what I did?"

Damon sighed. "No. You were trying to do what you thought would get her out of this stupid ritual thing. I get it...completely."

Amelia nodded. "Well...are you going to tell her what you did?"

He looked up at her, confused. "I did what you did; therefore, if you don't tell—"

"I don't mean today. I meant last night." Amelia pulled them to a stop at the bottom of Elena's porch with her hand around Damon's arm. "Delia came down this morning flamboyantly showing off that she slept with you because she thought we were Claire."

"Oh. That."

"Yeah..._that. _Damon, what on earth could've possessed you to sleep with her?" Damon opened his mouth, but Amelia held up her hand. "Shut it. Never mind, I don't want an answer to that question. But seriously...didn't you think about how this would affect Claire at all? Delia _hates _Claire. You know she only did it to get back at her because she knows you two...have something going on."

The elder Salvatore frowned. "Claire and I don't have anything 'going on', okay? We never have. Now you're starting to sound like my brother."

Amelia grimaced. "You kissed on Founder's Day. Katherine saw it."

Damon shrugged. "And she made it very clear that it was a mistake."

"Damon," Amelia started again, now in a more of a whining tone. "You and my sister have been together for the longest time. Whatever happened between you two in the past, you know it was nothing more than some stupid fight. You have the rest of _eternity _to figure your shit out. But this? Damon, I'm afraid that she's going to hate you for this again. And you're gonna have to return to the start." Damon fell silent, and Amelia exhaled. "So...just stop sleeping with Delia. Tell Claire what you did and...and hopefully she'll forgive you."

Damon wanted to reply, but he couldn't. Instead, Elena came rushing out of her house, desperately trying to catch up to the two vampires she thought had left.

"Damon! Amelia!" Elena slowed by them as she bounced down the porch stairs.

"Elena, what is it?" Amelia asked, concerned. Elena caught her breath for a moment and looked at Damon.

"It's Claire."

* * *

"Claire! Claire!" Damon shouted as he stormed down the stairs of the tomb and walked up to the entrance into the tunnels. Stefan was pacing by the lit flames from earlier, but hadn't gotten to Damon in time. Damon looked around the threshold and, for a brief moment, actually considered going inside. Instead, Stefan came up and pinned Damon to the side of the entrance. "Get the hell off of me!"

Damon shoved his brother off, but Stefan made sure to keep enough distance to refrain Damon from going in if he had to. Damon looked into the tomb. "Claire! Where the hell are you?"

Damon moved forward again, but Stefan pushed him so hard Damon fell into the center of the tomb with all of the flames. Amelia was now with them as well, idly standing by as she watched the two brothers fight. "Damon, she doesn't want to see you."

"What the _hell, _Stefan? What do you mean she doesn't want to see me? Clarissa!" Damon moved forward for the tomb again, but Stefan blocked it. Damon growled. "You better get out of my way, brother. How in the hell could you let this happen?"

"She had to," Stefan explained. "Katherine took Jeremy and she was going to kill him so—"

"Wait, _what_? She risked her life for some idiotic little _punk _who didn't want to sit back and take a knee?"

Claire listened to Damon and Stefan fight as she paced in the back of the tomb, standing as far away from Katherine as she could. She hated it when Damon and Stefan fought, but she didn't want to go out there and break it up—not like she could break it up, anyways.

"Damon, she did what she had to do."

"How can you say that? She is stuck in there with the evil, psychotic little _bitch _who killed her in the first place! Katherine will rip her apart!"

"She can handle herself."

"I said, get out of my way." Damon stepped forward so that he was level with his brother. "I want to see her."

"What part about 'she doesn't want to see you' do you not understand, Damon?" Stefan snapped. He could see the hurt in his brother's eyes that Damon tried to cover up with coldness, and for a moment, Stefan actually felt sorry for him. If it were up to him, he'd let Damon see Claire, but she asked Stefan to keep his brother away. Damon, with cold, black eyes, stared at his brother for a long time, hoping he'd crack.

Amelia stepped forward and lightly touched Damon's arm. "Damon, let's—"

"Get the off of me." Damon snatched his arm back violently, causing Amelia to jump at his abrasiveness. With a look to his brother and Claire's sister, he stormed out of the tomb promptly, unable to stay with them any longer.

Once Damon was gone, Claire emerged out of the shadows to face Amelia and Stefan as they waited for her entrance. She nodded to Stefan. "Thank you. I-I just...if I saw him, he would've made all of this harder. He would've made me feel stupid for doing what I did."

"It was stupid," Amelia said softly. "Katherine's in there with you, Claire. Don't you realize what that means? She has an unlimited time to kill you!"

"I told Stefan I can handle myself, and I can." Claire crossed her arms over her chest. "Right now, I need to be a last priority. If my only obstacle in here is Katherine, it's a piece of cake." She looked at Stefan. "But you need to get Damon to start working on despelling the moonstone. And Amelia, you need to keep Elena safe from Klaus."

"We'll handle it," Stefan promised. Claire nodded at them.

"And make sure Damon doesn't come down here, too." She sighed heavily and slipped her hands from their crossed position into her pockets and shifted uncomfortably. "Just...tell him I don't want to see him and that I'll stay away from him if he comes down here. That ought to keep him away until I get get out of here."

"Why?" Amelia scoffed. "All he wants to do is see you, so—"

"Amelia, I said keep him away," Claire snapped. Amelia silenced upon her sister's brisk voice, and she nodded at the two of them. "You guys should go now."

Amelia, who was slightly pissed at her sister for her cold tone, turned and headed out of the tomb. Stefan stayed for an extra moment.

"I'll come back in the morning."

"Yeah." She watched him as he left, following behind his girlfriend, and Claire turned around to find Katherine standing a few feet away, behind her, with a cat-like grin on her face.

"This is gonna be so much fun."

* * *

**This was a special Valentine's Day update because I was feeling generous. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! Review, please!**

* * *

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Damn Day indeed...

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Delia is definitely a very _special _character. Damon and Claire will eventually have a talk about Damon and Delia but I want to make sure that Claire isn't like Elena in the sense that she demands Damon stay unhappy until she decides whether or not she wants to be with him. That's going to be one of her biggest struggles because, honestly, she _will _be jealous, but she knows that she has no right to be. You know, it's funny you mention Claire accusing Damon of hating her because that will be happening in a couple episodes. But it's going to be a lot different than I think most people would expect because it's going to be a really tough time for Claire so she's really going to try and accuse him of hating her so she can feel better but it will end up hurting him for a moment. But we'll see that soon enough. Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Delia dying seems to be a very popular idea, but you'll just have to wait and see what happens and who will die, because it will either be Rose or Delia that is bitten by the werewolf but what happens after might surprise you. Claire is always in bitch-mode so that'll definitely be easy. Thanks for the review!

**Momsen-xxxx: **OH MY GOD you are literally the funniest reviewer ever! That was hilarious. Yeah, everyone seems to be pissed at Damon. Maybe this chapter changed some minds though...

**RHatch89: **Thank you! :)

**NicoleR85: **Oh yeah. She definitely will. Claire will find out soon enough, promise! Sorry for the wait on the update.

**Savage Kill: **Yeah, I'd definitely say so.

**Guest: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**Bella lugosi: **Everyone hates Delia lol. Claire's reaction will be...well, indescribable. You'll just have to wait. Payback is a bitch, though, and that's kind of going to be what hits Claire when she finds out.

**HPuni101: **Thank you. Klaus is coming up soon, promise :) That'll be a hell of a lot of fun.

**klandgraf2007: **Wow we officially have a ship name now, then? Daire? Ha that reminds me of Gossip Girl but whatever :P Vampire catfight...maybe not so much. Well, there might be a bit of a catfight between Claire and Katherine in the next chapter but Claire feels really bad about what she did to Delia, even though she thinks it's a little unfair of Delia to be hating her so much; she at least understands why. Katherine hasn't really explained it, but we'll get to see Claire's reaction to her explanation in the next chapter. Thanks for the review!


	25. By the Light of the Moon

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**By the Light of the Moon**

With her back turned from the others in the room with her, Elena eyed the moonstone in her hands with curiosity and disappointment, all while thinking about what the little rock would cause her. Bonnie was sitting on her bed overlooking her Grimoire while Amelia was pacing by the nightstand, but it wasn't a thoughtful pace, just more of a time-passer than anything else.

"Now that you've got this back, what are you gonna do with it?" Elena asked Bonnie, turning around to hear the answer.

"Right now, it's what's binding the Sun and Moon curse. If I can figure out a way to remove the spell from the stone because useless," she answered. Elena gave her a look of disdain and walked over to the window seat in her room.

"And according to Katherine, Klaus becomes vengeful."

Amelia scoffed. "Since when did we start listening to what Katherine Pierce had to say?"

"That's _if _he finds out," Bonnie added. Elena looked back and forth between the supernatural creatures in disbelief.

"Can't this wait? Claire is stuck in the tomb with Katherine! We've got to get her out!"

Bonnie shook her head tightly. "Claire told us to focus on this."

"My sister will be incredibly pissed off if we don't obey her 'orders'." Amelia rolled her eyes and sat down on the bed next to Bonnie. "She's in a very crabby mood lately, which is why I sent Stefan to go see her today."

Elena frowned. "Claire thinks that she's doing this to protect all of us, but she's wrong. We need to get her out of there before Katherine rips her to shreds!"

"I'm taking Claire's side with this one," Bonnie told her friend firmly. "We're not gonna let anyone get used in some _creepy _sacrifice ritual!"

As she said the words snidely, the young witch yanked the clear moonstone out of Elena's hands to take possession of it again. Before Elena could object, Jeremy opened the bathroom door that also led into Elena's room and interrupted them. "What are you guys arguing about?"

Amelia sighed. "Elena thinks we need to get Claire out of the tomb."

"Which we will," Jeremy said assuringly. "_After _we de-spell the moonstone."

"Correct," Amelia chirped. Bonnie put the moonstone in her bag with a shrug.

"Right. We're not arguing about anything because there's nothing to argue about anymore." She looked up at Jeremy and, after an awkward moment, turned to Amelia. "I need a coffee. You want a coffee, Amelia?"

"Sure. I'll go down with you." The two supernatural beings got up from the bed and walked out of the room, leaving the two siblings to their bidding. Elena, frustrated, sat down in Bonnie's place on her bed while Jeremy stepped forward with worried eyes. She saw him and sighed.

"What?"

"Why are you on some suicide mission?" her brother asked. She turned at him.

"I'm _trying _to prevent everyone else from getting hurt."

"Oh, so bringing Klaus the moonstone so you can get yourself killed is okay?" he countered. Elena wanted to dispute his argument, but Jeremy walked out of the room before she could say anything, and besides, she didn't know what to say to him. All she knew was that turning herself in was the only way to stop Klaus from coming to Mystic Falls and hurting the people that she cared about to break the curse.

So, with stealth hands and a sneaky mind, Elena had the bright idea to steal the moonstone right from Bonnie's bag. No one was around, so with caution, she reached into the bag and took the moonstone right out of it, hiding it in her pocket and under her shirt so that no one could see. Grabbing her keys from her dresser, Elena tip-toed downstairs, hoping not to run into anyone before she could get out of the house. To her dismay, Bonnie and Amelia were just about to walk upstairs with two cups of coffee in their hands.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked.

"Um..." Elena trailed off, trying to come up with a lie. "To see Claire."

"Ooh, I'll come with," Amelia suggested. Immediately, Elena tensed.

"Um...um, you know what? I kind of just want to speak to her alone. It's...err, private."

"You're lying." Bonnie nodded without batting an eye. Elena knotted her eyebrows.

"No, I'm not." She moved to go down the stairs, but Bonnie blocked her from leaving by standing at the end.

"Really? Tell your face."

"Are you serious?"

Jeremy rejoined them, trotting down the stairs with Bonnie's bag in his hand. Singing in a disappointed tone, he announced, "She took the moonstone..."

Elena looked back at Bonnie and Amelia. "How did you..."

"We tested you," answered the witch. Amelia took a sip of her coffee.

"You failed...if that wasn't obvious enough."

Elena looked up and down the staircase, but eventually just scoffed in disbelief. "Klaus killed Katherine's _entire _family just because she crossed him." She moved down, one step closer to the end of the staircase. Firmly, she told her friend, "I can't let that happen."

Reluctantly, somewhat too easily, Bonnie stepped aside, and the confused Elena took what she could get and hopped down the staircase and towards the front door to leave. She opened it, looking back at her friends and her brother, but right as she moved to go outside, she was blocked. An invisible barrier kept her from going outside the threshold, much like the tomb spell, and realizing what was preventing her, Elena turned around at the witch who no doubt put the spell on the house.

"What did you do?"

Bonnie grimaced. "It's for the best, Elena."

* * *

Claire laughed as she heard the story from Stefan. "I'm sorry...you _trapped _her in the house? Seriously, like the one time I can't be a part of the fun, you guys decide to have all of it without me?"

Stefan hung his head with a soft chuckle. "It was Damon's idea. He believes she's on a martyr tear that, and I quote, 'rivals my greatest hits'. But...at least he and Bonnie are getting along."

Claire scoffed. "Oh, yeah? How's that going?"

Her friend sighed. "It could be much better. But we're doing what we can so that this can be over with and we can get you out."

The blonde shook her head. "Don't worry about me, Stefan. I'm fine in here. It's all nice and...cozy."

"Mm." Katherine appeared from the back of the tomb with her hand on her hip and a smirk on her face. "That's one way to put it."

Stefan and Claire stared at Katherine with unamused eyes before finally ignoring her and resuming their conversation. Stefan stepped forward, careful to avoid the threshold, and held up a black duffel bag. Claire raised an eyebrow. "I put together a care package for you. Candles, lanterns, some light reading to pass the time. Damon suggested I put some weaponry in there along with some blood but I figured..."

"Anything you put in there, I just have to share with her." With a hearty sigh, Claire gritted her teeth and, without looking back, directed towards Katherine, "You are a literal _thorn _in my side, Katherine."

"The feeling is mutual." The brunette stepped forward into the light, closer to the entrance of the tomb. "You know, you two are surprisingly calm considering Klaus will hunt you down and kill you if you mess with his little plan."

The blonde sighed. "Well, no matter what our fate is, one thing's for certain: I will be tossing you over like a deer to a pack of mountain lions, that's for sure."

"Please..." Stefan shut his eyes tight and turned to Claire. "Please, for the love of God, do _not _die in there, Claire. Play nice."

Katherine smirked. "You could always come inside. Mediate for us?"

Claire turned and saw the spark in Katherine's falsely innocent eyes, and with a scrunch of her nose, she scoffed, "Ew! No." Her head turned back to Stefan. "Just make sure Elena doesn't kill herself before I get out of here and do it _for _her because of her inexcusable stupidity. Oh, and make sure Damon doesn't kill anyone important. Tonight's a full moon, right?"

Stefan nodded. "Yeah. I'll try to keep him out of trouble. I'll see you later."

"Bye." Claire and Katherine watched as Stefan turned and walked out of the tomb, all while Katherine kept a nasty eye on him. Claire watched her curiously, and once Stefan was out of earshot, she questioned, "I'm sorry, weren't you supposed to be in love with my husband?"

"Ex-husband," Katherine reminded her. With an irritated eye roll, Claire grabbed the duffel bag and walked to the back of the tomb and Katherine repeated, "Ex."

* * *

Damon stepped through the threshold of the Gilbert house with wondrous eyes, making sure that he'd be able to get out like he was able to get in. He found Elena sitting on the couch, moping to herself, while Amelia came out of the kitchen with a cup of tea for her. Stefan was beside her, having had entered the back door after his meeting with Claire, and Damon walked up to the threshold of the living room where Elena looked back at him.

"You should really lock your door." She crossed her arms at him. "Oh, come on, pouty. At least give me two points for ingenuity."

Amelia sighed. "Come on, Damon, the girl's been through enough today."

Elena turned at him with narrowed eyes and ignored the blonde vampire. "Do you think this is funny?"

"Yes, Elena. I find hilarity in the lengths that we all have to go through to repeatedly save yourself from a suicide mission." Damon frowned and Elena just gave him a pointed look.

"What does Claire have to say about this?"

The dark-haired vampire hid his emotions and shrugged nonchalantly. "Who knows? Who _care__s_? She won't see me, so I certainly don't."

Suddenly, Elena's face turned soft. "What? She won't see you?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Tragic story. Ask Stefan here what Claire thinks. He's the one bringing her a care package." While Elena looked over at Stefan for answers, Damon sat down on the couch next to the human and put his feet up on the coffee table. Stefan exhaled.

"She's disappointed that she's missing all the fun." Stefan sat down on the arm of the single couch. "She was Claire...as usual."

Elena raised an eyebrow. "What did she say about Elijah still being alive?"

Suddenly, Damon started to laugh, causing Elena to grow more confused. Stefan hid his eyes and Elena questioned Damon with a look. He looked up at her. "Oh, don't look at me. Stefan's explaining this one."

"I didn't want to worry her," Stefan admitted truthfully. "She's got enough on her plate having to deal with Katherine. There's no need for her to worry about the outside, too."

Damon shrugged. "It's not like she can do anything about it, anyways." He looked around the room. "Where's Bonnie?"

Jeremy interrupted everyone in the living room by strolling through. "I thought she was meeting you."

The vampire shook his head. "No. Little witch is on moonstone duty and the vampires are on Elena patrol."

Elena groaned. "Do I really need all three of you here?"

"Yes," all of them chorused at once. The brunette rolled her eyes irately and just recoiled into herself, pissed off. Jeremy, meanwhile, continued.

"And who's on Tyler Lockwood and the full moon?"

"Vampire Barbie asked me if she could handle it and I said, why not? Figured if she screwed up, he'll bite her and then I'll be rid of two of my problems." The elder Salvatore smirked. Elena practically shot up from the couch.

"Hold on a second. Tonight's the full moon?"

Suddenly, Damon's phone began to rang, so he lifted himself off the couch and responded quickly. "Yep. But you're too absorbed with your suicidal tendencies to notice." He answered his phone. "What?"

_"Sheriff Forbes has officially declared Mason Lockwood a missing person," _Alaric told the vampire over the line. Damon widened his eyes.

"What? Why?"

_"Some girl from Florida showed up on the Lockwoods' doorstep looking for Mason." _

"What girl?"

_"I don't know, but she's sure got everyone in a tizzy." _

Damon sighed. "That's not good. Where are you?"

_"I'm at the Grill." _

"I'm on my way." The vampire turned back into the Gilbert living room and looked around. "Change of plans. Brother...Elena's brother, you babysit. Blondie, you're coming with me." He beckoned Amelia to him, and though surprised, the younger King shrugged and walked towards him to exit the house. Stefan stood up, confused.

"Wait a second, what's going on?"

"Relax, brother." Damon looked at Elena while Jeremy laid back on the couch in his sister's grumpy lap. "Hey, you know...you should get out, enjoy the sun. Oh, wait...you can't!"

The teenage boy laughed at his sister while Damon and Amelia left the house promptly, and out of spite, Elena pushed her brother right off her lap with a hidden smile. Jeremy fell to the floor laughing, and when Elena looked up, she realized that she was going to be stuck in a house, primarily alone, with her ex-boyfriend as her bodyguard.

"Care to share what's so important you're putting me on a different patrol?" Amelia asked as she and Damon stepped outside into the daylight towards his car. Damon unlocked it and walked around to the driver's side.

"You remember that werewolf I killed while you were busy risking your life to save my brother's?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing." They climbed inside the car. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, someone came around town asking for him." Before starting the car, Damon leaned forward and hunted around in the glove compartment for something he had obviously stashed before. "And I'm willing to bet that this 'someone' is exactly like our old friend Mason." He took out a packet of wolfsbane and waved it in front of her with a smile. "So what do you say to a wager? Fifty bucks?"

Amelia stared at the packet of wolfsbane with a disinterested glance, and just shook her head and looked forward without responding.

* * *

"So we're fasting now?" Katherine questioned with disdain as she and Claire stood on opposite sides of the small cul-de-sac in the back of the tomb. "We're so pious."

Claire scoffed. "If there's one thing you're definitely not, Katherine, it's pious."

Regardless of Claire's comment, Katherine continued, "How long have you actually gone without blood? I know you get desiccation in theory, Clarissa, but in reality, it's much worse. Your heart still beats, struggling to pump whatever blood remains. And when it's gone, your veins rub together like sandpaper. It's excruciating."

"Kind of like you," she added snidely.

Katherine narrowed her eyes. "Go ahead. Look at me with those judgey, spiteful little eyes of yours. You and I both know we're much more similar than we are different. That's why I haven't killed you yet."

"No, you haven't killed me yet because you have some weird infatuation with this urban legend about my blood, which is why you had Caroline turn into a vampire." Claire paused. "And, you're out to destroy every bit of my life. Your endgame was never to kill me, it was always to make me suffer."

Katherine stared irately. "You think you have me pegged, don't you?"

"I don't _think _I have you pegged, Katherine, I know I have you pegged. I've figured out your little game and I'm not playing anymore. Kill me, don't kill me; but we both know you won't."

"You're right. I won't." Katherine relaxed against the stone wall of the tomb and straightened her back to get more comfortable. "Because it's much more fun watching you ruin your own life without any help from me at all."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The two stared at each other for a long time until Katherine, with a very hateful look on her face, scoffed and bit on her lip. "Wow. You really can't see it, can you? Are you just blind, then? Maybe that's the problem." Claire gave her opponent a look, telling her to clarify and move it along. Katherine leaned forward. "One day, Damon's not going to take the shit he gets from you, Claire. One day, he's going to snap. You can accuse me of toying with Damon...Stefan...Christopher, whoever you want. Truth is, you're just as bad."

"What the hell are you smoking?" Claire snapped. "Since when did this become about _Damon_?"

"It's always been about _Damon_." Katherine stood from her position at the wall, but Claire just looked up at her. "I took you down to that river and I drowned you because you needed a wake-up-call, little girl. But it seems you still haven't gotten one."

Giving up, Claire stood to face Katherine head-on. "I'm not going to sit in here and talk about Damon, Stefan, Christopher, or _anything else _for that matter."

She turned to go find her own wing of the tomb, far away from Katherine, when the brunette behind her shouted, "Oh, don't you dare act like you don't have a single clue. I'm far from oblivious, Claire. I know what's been going on between you and Damon for the last few decades and, quite honestly, I'm a little disappointed Stefan hasn't figured it out yet."

Claire stopped in her tracks and, hesitantly, turned around to face Katherine with her arms crossed over her chest. "What's your point?"

Katherine shrugged. "You can blame me for anything you want, Claire." She leaned against the stone wall of the cave with her stance copying Claire's more efficiently. "But you're exactly like me. And you hate me for it."

Claire bit down on her lip to keep from shouting, not like it would matter anyways. But to keep her temper under control, she turned her cheek and waited a few moments before snapping her head back.

"Well what's your excuse?" she countered. Katherine held her head high, thinking about the secret that she kept buried inside, but she didn't divulge. Instead, she turned on her own heel and walked in the other direction.

* * *

"Stefan, I'm fine," Elena groaned at him as she held open the door for him to leave. It was already dark out and the full moon was blaring loudly up in the sky. It frightened the human, concerned for her vampire friends, but she knew they could handle themselves. "I can't get out of the house anyways. I think it's best if you go."

Stefan shut the door so that cold air wasn't getting into the house. Elena shifted uncomfortably at his lack of distance and she avoided his eyes. "Elena, you can't be doing this. You can't be going around trying to get yourself killed, okay? I told you I will do what I can to protect you and I meant it."

"I don't need your protection," Elena snapped. Stefan waited for her to speak. "You know, I don't question why you, your brother, Claire, her sister, and everyone else try so hard to save me. You shouldn't question why I would try to save all of you."

Stefan shook his head. "Sacrificing yourself to save the rest of us is not the way to go about this. No one wants you to die, which is why we spelled you inside today instead of getting Claire out."

"Which is another thing!" Elena exclaimed, exasperated. "Your best friend is stuck in a tomb with her archenemy and everyone respects her decision to put ourselves before her. Why does no one question that and everyone questions me?"

"Because Claire is strong enough to handle herself," Stefan told her, now irritated. Elena frowned. "Look, it's okay. You're human. No one expects you to...fight off a herd of vampires at a time because of the fact that you aren't one. But Claire can handle Katherine, and she's very hard to dissuade. But I will get her out. In time. And Katherine won't kill her, as much as she threatens it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because Katherine had an entire century to sneak up on Claire and drive a stake through her heart but she didn't." Stefan shook his head. "So she won't. Trust me."

Elena took a moment to think but eventually, she nodded. "I do trust you, Stefan. But I want you to leave." He opened his mouth to protest, but she stopped him. "Look, I get it. Just because we're not together doesn't mean you don't care about me; the same goes with everyone else in your life. But being _here _with me won't make any of this easier."

"Elena..." Stefan trailed off, sighing. "This isn't about us right now."

"You're right," she said softly. "It's not. Which is good because...I don't think I could handle being with someone right now through all of this. But I'm doing this for your sake, okay? Because I care about you." Stefan watched as she gave him a light smile. "All I want is for you to be happy. And we both know who makes you happy right now, and it's not me. So there's no reason to be here right now."

"But Elena—"

"Stefan, please." Elena opened the door for him and nodded. "Go."

He wanted to stay, not for himself and his own feelings, but for her. Stefan didn't want her to get hurt, no matter if they were dating or not. But he respected her decision at last, and he stepped outside the threshold easily and watched as she closed the door with a smile. There he was, outside in the cold night, and he thought about what he should do next.

Elena, meanwhile, went upstairs and sat around in her room for the most part. Jeremy left her alone, but insisted that the door between their rooms be open just in case. After a while, Elena went downstairs to get something to eat and stretch a bit when she found her Aunt Jenna digging through the hallway closet under the staircase.

"Hey. What are you doing?" Elena asked. Jenna looked up at her with thankful eyes.

"Oh! Great timing." She shoved a box into Elena's arms, and since the box was heavy, Elena's balance wobbled.

"Um...whoa. What is this stuff?"

"Your mom's files from the Historical Society. I got roped into helping Mrs. Lockwood." She picked up a box in her arm and said loudly as if to another guest, "And by 'roped', I meant very excited to participate!"

Shutting the closet door, Elena gasped upon seeing Elijah standing on the other side, in her kitchen, with a very kind smile on his lips. A chill ran down her spine as he greeted her, "Hey. I'm Elijah."

Jenna stepped forward, oblivious to Elena's frozen state, and grabbed the box from Elena's arms. "Elijah's in town doing research in Mystic Falls."

Elijah stepped forward and extended his hand, to which Elena took with a shudder. "It's a pleasure."

"So, you're welcome to stay here and rummage through this stuff," Jenna offered, "or Elena and I could help you load it into your car."

"Or I can get someone to pick it up tomorrow," Elijah suggested. Jenna chuckled.

"Also a good plan."

"Thank you so much for inviting me into your home, Jenna," Elijah thanked her as he followed Jenna out. Elena visibly stiffened, though it all went oblivious to her poor Aunt Jenna. Suddenly, Elijah's voice called her to turn. "And Elena? I hope to see you again sometime soon."

His words, cryptic as they were, made Elena shake. She watched as Jenna showed the Original out and, both calmly and hurriedly, she rushed up to her brother's room with her breath caught in her throat and she pounded on the door, trying to go inside. But right as she tried to push the door open, Elijah pulled it shut and held a finger to his lips, telling her to stay quiet. The re-entered vampire hid behind the wall next to Jeremy's door and Elena ran a hand through her hair as Jeremy opened his door.

"What is it?" the teenager asked. Elena scrambled for a lie.

"Um...Jenna was just asking me to...get you to help her with the boxes."

Jeremy nodded and started out of his room. "Oh. Yeah."

Once he was gone and down the stairs without noticing the stealthy vampire on the other side of the wall, Elena turned around at Elijah with nervous eyes. He nodded to her.

"A wise choice," he praised.

Elena inhaled deeply. "What do you want?"

"I think it's time you and I had a little chat."

A part of Elena was scared—shaking, even—but another part of her wanted to talk to Elijah. This was what she wanted to do all along, but the spell Bonnie put on the house made that impossible. With her eyes and reflexes on the highest alert, Elena led the Original into her room and shut the door for their privacy. She walked over to the bathroom door and made sure that was closed as well when Jeremy came back upstairs.

"Oh, forgive the intrusion," apologized the classy vampire. "I mean your family no harm."

"Why did you kill those vampires when they tried to take me?" Elena urged. Elijah sat down on her window seat.

"Because I didn't want you to be taken." Elena arched an eyebrow. "Klaus is the most feared and hated of the Originals, but those that fear him are desperate for his approval. If word gets out that the doppelgänger exists, there'll be a line of vampires eager to take you to him, and I can't have that."

"Isn't that exactly what you're trying to do?"

Elijah hesitated. "Let's just say that my goal is _not_ to break the curse."

Frustrated, Elena threw up her hands. "So what is your goal?"

"Klaus's obsessions have made him paranoid. He's a recluse," Elijah told her, straightening. "He trusts only those in his immediate circle."

"Like you?"

"Not anymore." He shook his head. Elena held her head high.

"You don't know where he is, do you?" There was only silence, and it was starting to fall together for Elena. "So you're trying to use me to draw him out."

"Well, to do that, I need you to stay put and to stop trying to get yourself killed."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Well, if I wasn't being truthful, all of your family would be dead and I'd be taking you to Klaus right now. Instead, I'm here, and I'm prepared to offer you a deal," Elijah proposed, intriguing the human in his company. Elena stepped forward with her eyes raised.

"What kind of a deal?"

"Do nothing." He stood. "Do nothing, live your life. Stop fighting. Then, when the time is right, you and I shall draw Klaus out together and I shall make certain that your friends remain unharmed."

"And then what?"

"Then I kill him."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that." She straightened, disbelieving. "I'm a man of my word, Elena. I make a deal, I keep a deal."

"How are you going to be able to keep everybody safe?" she inquired.

"You know, I notice you have a friend...Bonnie, is it? She seems to possess the gift of magic. I have friends with similar gifts."

She nodded, unsurprised. "You know witches."

"And together we can protect everybody that matters to you." He walked forward, closer to her, with the offer on the table. "So do we have a deal?"

Elena realized what a good offer it was, and though she wasn't all that certain she could trust him, she realized that she had no choice. But then, something else struck her mind, and she stepped forward with her arms crossed and a counter offer at hand.

"I need you to do something for me."

"We're negotiating now?"

Elena smiled softly, and her eyes held that of the fire of a certain Petrova.

* * *

Amelia stepped into the King residence after the long day and night she had with Damon at the Grill, where he not only pissed off a werewolf on the full moon but also accomplished a whole crapload of _nothing_. She was tired and cranky and didn't feel like talking to anyone, but was surprised when she found Stefan waiting inside of her house for her. The presence frightened her at first so much so that she jumped, but she recovered quickly.

"Stefan." Amelia hung up her jacket on the coat rack a few feet from the door. "Jesus, would it kill you to warn me next time? I may be a vampire but I've had a _terrible _day."

"What happened?" he asked, walking forward with his hands in his pockets. Amelia sighed.

"Oh, you know. The usual. Damon pissed off a werewolf on a full moon, we got nothing accomplished, and I had to pretend that Alaric was my uncle and that he was the town drunk." She paused. "Which kind of isn't a stretch if you think about it. The town drunk part, I mean. He's definitely not my uncle." Seeing the look on his face, she turned to him with raised eyebrows. "What about you? How was Elena patrol?"

"Fine." Stefan shrugged. "We didn't really talk much. She kicked me out an hour ago and...and I thought about going to the tomb to see Claire, but then I figured I shouldn't. Then I thought about going back to the house but then..."

She smiled. "Then?"

He thought of ten different ways to respond. Probably could've come up with a million ways, honestly. But instead of saying anything, he thought about what Elena told him—she told him to be happy. The more he thought about what that meant, the more he knew, as difficult as it was.

Stefan leaned down and, without any kind of warning or hesitations, captured Amelia's lips in his and pulled her close. Amelia stumbled into his arms, quite confused, but she didn't have any time to process anything. In the middle of a cold, empty, quiet house, they were all alone. She pushed his jacket off his shoulders so it fell down to the floor, and it was a hundred years overdue, but they didn't stop to think, to speak, or move.

* * *

Damon returned to the boarding house, curious to find it empty but slightly nervous about what Jules, the werewolf from earlier, had said when she meant that he'd "been marked". Once inside, he locked the front door as silly as it sounded, and found that the house was eerily quiet. But there was another presence in the house, he realized, so he went in the direction his gut told him and walked into the study.

"Stefan?" he hissed under his breath as he looked around the room. But as he did so, hoping not to find a venomous wolf inside, he found Delia sitting behind the alcohol rack in the room. With a frown, Damon walked inside as she stood up.

"Just can't stay away, can you?" he commented with a sour edge. She walked forward.

"You would've known I was coming back if you answered your phone, cupcake."

"Where's Rose? What do you want?" Damon asked, looking around the room. Delia shrugged.

"She went to go get something to eat." Vampire food, obviously. "But we both came back to apologize to everyone. We didn't mean to—"

"Just admit it." Damon crossed his arms over his chest. "You don't have anywhere else to go."

"Look, your friends came to _us _for help," Delia defended herself. Damon grimaced at her. "And I'm sorry, okay? I know that there was a chance that if Elena had gotten taken, Claire would eventually been taken, too, and for that I am sorry. Rose and I weren't thinking straight, there was a lot on the line. Besides, we didn't know your doppelgänger had a death wish."

Damon sighed. "Stop pretending like you actually care whether or not Claire gets hurt. I know that you tried to flaunt our one-night-stand around when Amelia came to the house that day."

"I know." Delia nodded. "And for that, I'm not exactly all that sorry. You know how I feel about her." The two vampire stared at each other for a while until, finally, Damon broke the ice and walked towards the bourbon tray on the back of the couch.

"There's nothing here for you, Delia. Tell your sister the same thing."

She opened her mouth to respond, furiously, when there was a huge crashing sound of glass breaking in the other room. Damon turned around, immediately concerned, and the two vampires rushed out to the foyer to see what the commotion was about. Damon, seeing the gaping hole in one of the windows in the parlor, immediately flashed up and grabbed a sword hanging on the wall and slowly came into view wielding the weapon against the large, throaty grey wolf in the middle of his home. The moment Delia saw it and watched the eyes of the wolf focus in on the dark-haired Salvatore and lunged, she shouted, "Damon!"

Delia tried to push him out of the way, using her superior strength, but was somehow mistaken by the wolf for the larger Salvatore. Therefore, the wolf attacked, tearing into the skin of the vampire who was taken off-guard. Delia screamed and felt the wolf bite into her skin, and Damon, a witness to the entire fight, stabbed the wolf straight in the stomach with the sword he held. Delia sat up straight, looking at the wolf bite in her shoulder with pure, unadulterated fear.

"Shit, shit, shit!" she cursed under her breath. Damon bent down immediately, his eyes wide.

"How bad is it?"

"It's a wolf bite, Damon; how bad do you _think _it is?" she nearly screamed at him. Damon watched the bite carefully, expecting it not to heal, and his heart immediately began to pound with anticipation. But then, in front of their very eyes, the bite began to close up, and all that was left behind was the blood on her shoulder.

"It's healing," Damon whispered, astonished. Delia let out a sigh of relief and couldn't stop the tears of happiness that escaped her eyes.

"Oh, God. Oh, thank _God. _I thought a werewolf bite was f-fatal, I—"

"It's all right." Damon wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded. "It's fine. You're gonna be okay."

She nodded and smiled through her tears, and he pulled her closer to his chest while she cried in relief.

* * *

Katherine entered the corridor that Claire had put herself in to stay as far away as she could from Katherine, who was starting to grow bored. She said so, quite bluntly, "I'm bored."

"Sucks for you." Her companion smiled bitterly.

"Are you seriously just gonna sit around here and wallow? You're the one who asked them to focus on the moonstone first."

"I'm not wallowing, I'm waiting. Patiently." Claire drummed her fingertips against her denim-covered knees. Katherine eyed them with despite.

"Stop that right now or I'll come over there and rip them off for you." The blonde snuck a look at Katherine, who was dead serious, and so Claire stopped her tapping and ran a hand through her hair in silence. Katherine set the lantern in her hand down on the small bench in the back of the tomb.

"Are we seriously just not going to talk from now on?"

Claire chuckled. "Look, I know you think it's fun to talk to me because you _live _for the bickering, but there are actual times when I grow sick and tired of it. I know I'm gonna have a hell of a lot to bicker about with Damon when I get out of here so if you don't mind, I'd rather just sit in silence."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen."

"What do you want to talk about, huh? How you've plotted to make my life miserable from the very second you saw me and won't even tell me what the reason is?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "You know the reason, Claire. It's obvious."

"What kind of person _turns _the person they're jealous of and _destroys _their life one relationship at a time?" Claire asked, her voice going up a pitch. Katherine frowned as Claire scoffed, disbelieving. "I don't buy it. Not for a second. It's a petty reason."

"What do you want me to say, Claire? That I'm sorry for everything that I've done? Well, I'm not, okay? It's called self-preservation; I've been looking out for myself for 500 years."

Claire stood abruptly. "I want you to tell me why the hell you think you can go around and mess with my life. Why you think that you can presume everything about me and torture me emotionally and physically. I just don't get it. I've spent my entire life...not _getting _it. So here we are, Katherine, stuck in a tomb underground for god knows how long. So why don't you just spit it out already?"

"You're not going to like what I'm going to say," Katherine said through her teeth. Claire narrowed her eyes into slits, confused. "I don't like to talk about it and I sure as hell don't want to talk about it with you."

"Of course you don't. Because you don't know the reason," Claire accused her. Katherine sat down on the bench with her lips in a hard line. "Because you don't have a reason. Just admit it, Katherine, you have nothing better to do with your life so you decided one day that it'd be fun to screw with _mine." _

Suddenly, Katherine stood up and growled, "My best friend married my brother, you know that?"

"Yeah. I did." Claire crossed her arms. "It was in your family book. Elena said she was a King."

"Right. She was a King." Katherine let a diseased smile spread across her lips. "Tabitha King. But not just _any _King. She was _you_."

Claire squared her jaw. "Last time I checked, Katherine, I was not born in the 15th century."

"God, you're so stupid," Katherine snapped. "Of course she wasn't _really_ you, idiot_. _She looked like you. Down to the size of your freaking feet, she _was _you. Klaus turned her into a vampire and made her kill my family and take me back to him, but I killed her first. Only, I spent the rest of my life beating myself up about it because there were times when I _fantasized _about torturing her. Ripping her limbs apart and feeding it to the wolves, actually. But, obviously, I couldn't get my chance because she was dead and that was my own fault. But then you came along, and you looked just like her, and I had my chance. But I tried to behave because I knew none of what she did was your fault, but there you were...all perfect and everyone loved you—Stefan, Damon, Christopher...everyone! And I couldn't take it anymore so I did everything I wanted to do to her to _you _instead."

The cave fell silent, but after a moment, Claire began to laugh. Katherine, who was already worked up over her confession, fought the urge to kill the girl in front of her. Eventually, Claire found time to break through her laughs and say, "You expect me to believe all of this? That I'm a doppelgänger of the woman that killed your entire family?"

Katherine gave a sour smile. "You're not special enough to be a doppelgänger, Claire."

"Well, according to you, I look like the spitting image of your childhood best friend! Kind of the definition of a doppelgänger." The vampire shrugged, looking at Katherine with challenging eyes. Katherine scoffed.

"Believe me, don't believe me. It's true." She sat back down on the bench. "So you want to know why I hate you so much? There's your reason."

Claire took a moment to respond once Katherine fell silent. "Why are you telling me this? It's not because I asked."

"You're gonna die anyway." Katherine shrugged and turned to Claire with a bitter smile. "Might as well go down knowing why your miserable life has been so miserable."

But though the words were harsh, Claire could see the gesture Katherine was trying to make. Slowly, she moved over to the bench and sat down beside Katherine, who shifted uncomfortably and inevitably rolled her eyes. Claire sighed. "Do you really love Christopher?"

It was an odd question, but one that needed to be asked. Katherine scoffed.

"You think I'd tell you?"

"Whatever." Claire shook her head. "The point is, you're not the only one who was jealous back in 1864. So was I. And I'm not perfect. Far from it, actually." She let out a deep breath and looked at the ground. "If I was, I wouldn't have made that messed up deal with Damon so long ago."

"The only part that was messed up was that you stopped," Katherine murmured. Claire tried to hold back a laugh, but was unsuccessful. "Look, I'm gonna give you a little tip about Klaus because once I'm out of here, I'm never coming back. You want to protect that precious Elena and the rest of this boring old town? Go ahead. Start with Isobel."

"Elena's mother?" Claire asked, confused. Katherine nodded.

"She found me. If she can do that, she can find anyone." They were silent. "You're welcome."

Claire watched as Katherine rose from the bench. "Thanks," she said curiously. Katherine shrugged.

"Saves me the trouble of having to kill you myself."

Before Katherine could walk out like intended, there was a crashing noise and Claire grabbed the lantern beside her to walk out to the entrance of the tomb. Katherine stopped mid-step with a sharp gasp, but Claire continued all the way to the threshold. Elijah was standing before them in the dim moonlight of the evening.

"Elijah," Katherine cowered.

"Good evening, Katerina. Thank you for having the good sense to be frightened." Claire stared at him, curious as to how a dead vampire was up and walking, but did not question it. He turned to her with a smile. "Clarissa King. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Claire bit her lip. "Forgive me if I'm not sure whether the pleasure is mine or not."

Elijah smiled. "Your release has been requested. I'm positive that is pleasure enough."

"What? By who?"

"The lovely Elena drives a hard bargain. However, we reached a peaceful agreement, she and I." He stepped aside and gestured. "Please. Come."

Claire looked around the threshold. "But the tomb has this spell that—"

"I've had the spell lifted," Elijah told her. Immediately beside Claire, Katherine stiffened. Claire, unsure whether or not it was a trap, slowly stepped out of the tomb to find that he was right; she was able to get out of the threshold with ease. Right as she crossed the line, Katherine tried to flee, therefore Elijah flashed up and blocked her way. Claire stepped out further into the tomb, avoiding the quarrel between the Original and the brunette vampire.

"As for you, however," Elijah continued. Claire watched as he looked into her eyes, almost as if compelling her. "You shall not exit until I say so. When Klaus comes, he'll want to know exactly where you are."

Elijah turned, releasing her from his gaze, and Katherine gave a disappointed look. Elijah turned back to Claire. "You're free to go. Elena will explain the arrangement to you and your friends. If she keeps her word, I'll keep mine."

Claire wanted to ask him what the deal was, but she was only left to watch him leave. From inside the tomb, Katherine's voice trembled. "Claire, no. Please don't let him leave me in here."

Claire swallowed thickly. "Sorry, Katherine."

She said nothing more but watched the horror over Katherine's face as she left the tomb.

* * *

Elena sighed as she walked around the kitchen, getting a glass to fill it up with water. Just as she took a sip of the water and was about to go upstairs, she saw something outside of her house and she realized exactly who it was. With a smile, Elena set down her glass and walked up to the back door, unlocking it to find Claire on the back porch. Claire smiled and leaned against the door.

"I guess I won't kill you for your stupidity, then." Elena rushed up and hugged her friend tightly, where Claire smiled and hugged Elena back. "Thank you, Elena."

"I couldn't believe no one was doing anything to get you out." Elena pulled back and shook her head. "Did Katherine get to you? You're not dead, at least...so that's a plus."

Claire chuckled. "Katherine...Katherine and I had a very interesting talk where I learned some very strange things." The blonde pursed her lips remembering the story Katherine told, but decided to push it out of her mind. "But it doesn't matter. I'm out, thank _God. _That tomb really is boring."

"Have you fed?" Elena asked quietly. Claire nodded.

"On my way over. Thought it would be rude to thank you on an empty stomach."

"Well, come in. Come on," Elena pushed, stepping aside. "We can watch a movie or something. I'm not allowed to leave the house anyway until the sun comes up tomorrow." She grimaced. Claire laughed.

"Yeah. I heard about that. But I can't." Claire tapped her fist against the side of the French doors in thought. "There's...someone I gotta see."

Elena eyed her carefully. "You mean Damon?"

Claire smiled. "Night, Elena."

"Well..." Elena tried to get out of the house again, but Claire was already gone and the threshold was still keeping her inside. Frustratedly, the human closed the doors leading to the back porch she couldn't go on, grabbed her water, and went upstairs.

* * *

"I talked to Caroline," Damon told Delia as she walked over to him wearing nothing but her robe since she had showered after the attack from the wolf. He brought his glass of bourbon to his lips. "She said Tyler was all locked up."

"So it was the other werewolf, then? Jules? The one you pissed off in your pissing contest?" A smile peaked through Delia's lips as Damon downed his alcohol and put it back behind the couch. He sighed.

"Yeah, she was coming after me. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Delia shrugged as Damon started to pour her a glass of bourbon too. "Everything's fine."

"You all healed?"

"Yep...looks that way to me." Delia smiled and drank a small bit of her alcohol. "And Rose won't be back until tomorrow, by the way. She's...having some fun tonight. That is, if we're still welcome, of course." The dark-haired vampire hid a smile under her lips as she drank again.

Damon hid his own smile. "You know, Delia...I'm happy that the legend was fake. Maybe the werewolves made it up to keep the vampires away."

"Is that your subtle way of telling me we can stay here?"

"I'm not subtle."

"No you are not." She chuckled. Damon's hands trailed up her thigh and a look of lust crossed his gaze. Delia sighed. "Well, for the record, if it makes you feel any better, my sister and I are going to stay and help your merry little band of vampires."

"Help us?"

"Well, against my better judgement, I will help _you _protect your impossible little—" Delia stopped seeing Damon's gaze and exhaled calmly, "_charming _Claire."

Damon smiled. "Really? Why?"

"Because I could use a friend." She leaned closer to his lips. "And so could you."

"Just friends?"

"Well..." Damon pushed forward and kissed her, very lightly, before she pulled back a quarter of an inch and smiled. "Maybe not _just _friends."

The two stared at each other, closer than ever, and laughed before pulling back to each other in another locking kiss. Damon reached up and secured her face to his with his brute hands and pushed himself off the couch so that she could get underneath him, but right as he was about to pull them down to a lying position on the couch, there was an unexpected voice.

"Da—" Claire rushed into the study, looking around for Damon when she found him on the couch, lying on top of someone right in front of her eyes. When the two broke apart, Claire realized, very quickly and angrily, that the second person was none other than her second nemesis. Her chest rose and fell furiously as Damon jumped up from the couch, his eyes narrowed in confusion. "Well okay then."

"Claire?" Damon rushed out. Delia wiped the taste of Damon's lips off her mouth and straightened up into a proper position. "What the hell are you doing here? How did you get out of the tomb?"

She ignored him and looked at Delia. "You know, I've just about had it up to _here_ with you. In fact, I've had it up to _here _with people trying to destroy my life. Get up. Now."

Delia stood from the couch. "What? I don't see your name on him."

"Claire, back off," Damon warned her, stepping between them. Claire looked up at him with a stone-cold gaze.

"Move, Salvatore," she snapped. He stepped forward, but she stepped back. "I said _move_. Get out of my way."

Delia couldn't help herself. She pouted teasingly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Is Claire all upset because one of her men decided they don't want her anymore?"

"Delia, you are _not _helping!" The dark-haired Salvatore snapped at the half-naked woman behind him. He turned back around to Claire. "Claire, just turn around. This isn't any of your business."

"This isn't any of my business?" she repeated furiously. Damon saw her stare and remembered it from the night that he killed Jeremy, only this time, she was filled with even more fury. "I'm _sick _and _tired _of being pushed around like this. I will deal with you later but right now..."

Slipping past Damon, Claire flashed over to Delia and wrapped her hand around the old vampire's throat and threw her against the wall. "I won't tolerate this. I'm tired of everything in my life being taken. Frankly, it's a little rude." Delia groaned and struggled against Claire's hand, but couldn't get out. Claire tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Hmm? What was that? Looks like you're not so strong after all."

"Claire, let _go_." Damon shoved the blonde off of Delia so that Claire stumbled back, her fists clenched at her sides. Damon helped Delia up after she fell to the ground, choking. "Delia, are you okay?"

"Damon, my shoulder..." Delia gasped out. Claire raised her eyebrows, finding it to be a lame excuse, but Damon, with an extremely concerned look on his face, spun her around and yanked the shoulder of her robe off to expose the bare shoulder. Claire rolled her eyes, but at a second glance, she saw something strange.

"What the hell is that?" Claire asked, stepping forward to examine the gnarly wound on Delia's shoulder, covered in bumps and irritated with blood flow. Delia widened her eyes and Damon looked up to meet her gaze.

It was a wolf bite.

* * *

**A little later than the Wednesday updates normally but I got it done! It's snowing here so I probably won't be going to school for the rest of the week so I'll try to write as much as I can!**

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**Guest: **Well here's the first part about Claire being angry over finding out that Delia and Damon slept together. This was more of the Delia part but she will be very bitter for the next episode. Obviously, Delia will die, and...I mean, I guess it'll hurt. Something will happen that will make it even more tragic though. Claire will have her time to turn it off, I promise. But it won't be for a long time. Thanks for reviewing!

**stephanierebecca91: **Here's the update! Thank you!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **An OC loving Damon in a Damon/OC story? IMPOSSIBLE. Haha no she definitely does love him but doesn't realize it and won't for a very long time. This thing about her being a look-alike of Tabitha King has a very in-depth story to it that will explain why it's taking her such a long time to really understand how she feels about Damon and it will explain all of the hardships that they have and will endure in the future. This last part where Claire kind of attacked Delia was kind of more her anger towards everything that has happened with Katherine in the past and she kind of just snapped because she feels like her entire life is being taken away by women who are jealous of her. I need badass Claire back so she's got to do some killing or something in the next few episodes, I just can't stand her being all pushover-y. Good guess but Delia was bitten, so she will be dying. But something else will happen so stay tuned!

**Momsen-xxxx: **I don't even think I need to say anything because that was basically 2x10 summed up into one review :) Thanks for the review!

**NicoleR85: **Well wait no longer, here it is!

**Savage Kill: **Yep Katherine finally told her. But that's probably all that's gonna be spoken about it for the rest of the season. Maybe it'll be mentioned once or twice but other than that it's kind of got to be on the backburner because of all the other stuff happening with Klaus. Season 3 will really be where she comes to understand why that's even possible.

**grapejuice101: **Here's the update!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **No you are not. I love stubborn Damon too :)

**Guest: **Yes they definitely have a history but I agree with you, I'm Damon and Claire all the way too! Shh, don't tell anyone :P

**Tvd2014: **Aw thank you! Just wait a few more episodes because this is your glimmer of hope. Claire and Damon will be more than interacting by 2x16...do with that what you will.

**Guest: **the feels indeed! thanks for the review!

* * *

**P.S. **so this is super random and super late because I've mentioned it on all my other stories besides this one: if you didn't know, I now have a **twitter, tumblr, and an instagram **and all of the links are on my profile so please follow them! Everything you need to know about stories and updates, especially for this story, will be on there.


	26. The Descent

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Descent**

**Los Angeles, 1977**

_"I wish I could stay, I do." Delia planted a tiny kiss on her boyfriend, Peter's, lips as she headed for the door of her hotel room while slipping on a bright orange leather jacket and flipped her long, dark hair out of the collar. The human was in their rented bed, naked with just the cover sheet wrapped around his bare waist and a pout sat on his lips. "But there's something I need to take care of." _

_"Is it vampire related?" he asked her, straightening up in the bed and putting his arms behind his head. "Because I'm right here for the taking." _

_Delia smiled. "Yes, it is vampire related. No, it is not blood related." She blew him another kiss. "I will be back soon." _

_"Don't hurry or anything, it's not like I'm getting any older!" With a soft chuckle, she closed the door on him and he sighed, banging his head against the headboard. "Nope, just the other way around."  
_

_Delia, however, was equally as peeved that she had to leave the sanctity they called their hotel room to go take care of things. It was ridiculous, what was happening in Los Angeles lately, and she knew exactly who was responsible for it. She saw the girl everywhere, on the streets, in the bars, out in plain daylight without a care in the world, draining whoever crossed her path and leaving a trail of bodies in her wake. It was starting to become unpleasant for Delia every single time she and Peter went out on a date; a normal, human date that was, because every time there would be something vampire-related brought up. Los Angeles hadn't seen so many mountain lion attacks in...well, ever! _

_Whoever this reckless vampire was, she was going to blow Delia's cover. Delia's and every other godforsaken vampire who had stopped to rest in the city of LA. _

_Luckily for her, Delia had always been good at tracking movements. When she was a child, she went hunting, and as a vampire she knew how to catch her fair share of game. But for this specific purpose, Delia knew exactly where this reckless vampire would be and when she would be there. For instance, on the night that Delia left her boyfriend sitting in their hotel room all alone, this vampire would be hitting the local bar, Rudy's, up for a few quick meals before hitting another one. _

_Sure enough, Delia found said vampire inside of Rudy's as the speakers blared loudly and the disco lights inside of the club darkened the room. But right underneath the disco ball that accompanied the cheesy music of the era, there was a vampire, plain and simple, feeding right in the middle of the dance floor with no thoughts of being caught. Her pale blonde hair was masked by the strobe lights and Delia, determined to end the atrocity in her city once and for all, stormed right up to the vampire, who had the sense to pull her teeth back and lick her lips free of the blood on them in ecstasy. It was all timed very perfectly, for Delia rushed up and compelled the human in the other vampire's arms. _

_"Get out of here. Forget what happened." __The human scurried, like a mouse running from a cat, and Delia looked at the vampire before her. "Do you realize what a pain in my ass you're being? Who the hell are you?" _

_"Me?" The vampire licked her lips again, but there was still dry blood coating her pink mouth. She lifted her hand and wiped it away with a smile. "The name's Clarissa. Clarissa King."_

* * *

"Unmade bed..." Claire marked as she walked into Stefan's bedroom with curiosity, hoping to find him inside to talk to him about what she'd learned from Katherine in the tomb. She walked further into the room, looking around for clues. "Unopened drawers...cold temperature...Gee, if I didn't know any better—"

"Right here." Claire turned around and found Stefan entering his bedroom, and she crossed her arms with a cocked eyebrow as she surveyed him and his caught smile. "Sorry. Hey! You're...you're out of the..."

"Tomb?" Claire filled in, watching as he walked towards her, seeming out of it. She was hesitant to speak. "Um, yeah. Elena made a deal with Elijah to get me out."

Stefan's eyes widened. "Why...why would she do that?"

"Because she felt the need to. Don't worry, it was a harmless deal. Actually, it sort of prevents herself from going on her little suicide missions so that's good." Claire shrugged, but then let herself get distracted by Stefan's appearance: the less tense frame, his fumbled words, his messed-up hero hair. She gasped, suddenly coming to the realization. "Stefan Salvatore! You got laid!"

Stefan snorted. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Oh, don't give me that load of horseshit. Your hair's messed up, you've relaxed, and you're wearing the clothes you had on when you came to visit me in the tomb yesterday morning." The blonde smiled as her best friend huffed, realizing he'd been caught. "Oh my God. You and my sister totally had sex. Wait a second, I should probably be more grossed out about this, shouldn't I?"

"Yes, Amelia and I spent the night together." Stefan rolled his eyes. "Honestly, that's probably not the most important thing we should be talking about." Claire, again, raised an eyebrow at him, and therefore he clarified, "Claire, you were released from the tomb! At least give me a second to appreciate that my best friend's not trapped anymore with my ex-girlfriend before you start bombarding me with details about my sex life."

"As your best friend, I am entitled to details about your sex life." She paused. "Which, upon further reflection, I don't want to know about. It's weird. I don't want to think about you and my sister that way. Kind of gross."

Stefan pointed at her. "Now you know how I felt when Katherine told me you kissed Damon."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, well you're not going to have to worry about that anymore. You know, I'm still waiting for a welcome home hug." With a smile, Stefan stepped forward and embraced her in a hug, where she returned it with an equal amount of strength. When they pulled away, Claire wrinkled up her nose. "You kind of stink, Stef."

"Fine. Then let me shower and then you can tell me all about this deal that Elena made with Elijah, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, Stefan started towards his bathroom and Claire was left to wander around his room for a good ten or fifteen minutes before he finally came out of the shower, fully clothed, with a wet towel slung over his shoulder. Once he was out, she told him everything he needed to know about the deal Elena made and had told Claire about later last night when Claire had left the boarding house and had gone back to the Gilbert house, opting out of sticking around to deal with Damon and Delia. In addition to informing him about Elijah and Elena's deal, she also told him about everything that happened with Katherine inside of the tomb before Elijah showed up and also the little detail that Elijah compelled Katherine to stay put inside of the tomb even though the spell had been lifted.

But Stefan was more hung up on what Katherine said than anything else. "Isobel, huh?"

"Yep." Claire reached into her pocket and grabbed a small vile of vervain that she had snagged earlier in the morning and walked over to the alcohol tray by the window where Stefan kept his rarely touched alcohol. She swore there was dust on it. When there was no sound from Stefan, Claire groaned. "Oh, Stefan, _please _do not tell me you think that's a good idea."

"Claire—"

"Don't 'Claire' me." She looked over her shoulder while she split the vervain in the vile between two glasses. "It's a bad idea, Stefan. I get it, Katherine was trying to help, but no one—least of all me—wants that goddamn bitch back in our town."

"But if she can help get answers to how to take Klaus down, we've got to take the risk."

"Stefan, Elena made a deal with Elijah that prevents this verything from happening."

"Yeah. _She _made the deal. She should stick to it." Stefan shrugged. "I, on the other hand, did not, so I don't have to."

Claire poured bourbon into both of the glasses she held and walked over to Stefan with a groan. "Jeez, Stefan, do you have to be so difficult all the time?"

"Ah." He grinned. "You are literally living a day in my shoes, my friend." Stefan looked down at the glasses and shook his head. "I saw you slip vervain into those. If you're trying to kill me, can I at least know the reason?"

She frowned at him. "I'm not trying to kill you. I slipped vervain in mine, too. You said Amelia told you that Katherine built up a tolerance to vervain...obviously since she quit drinking it recently, she was able to be compelled, but we have vervain and we need to protect ourselves. I told Caroline to do it and Amelia's already keeping a steady dose."

Stefan took the glass reluctantly. "And Damon?"

"Damon can get compelled by an Original vampire to go throw himself off a cliff for all I care." Stefan frowned. "Relax, I've already let him know what to do." The blonde smiled sourly and tapped her friend's glass. "Bottoms up."

With a heavy sigh, Stefan and Claire both downed their drinks at the same time, the taste of vervain and alcohol sliding down their throats with an extra burn. It wasn't until a few seconds after the vervain had settled into their bloodstreams that the two vampires began to cough, and it practically brought Stefan to his knees. Claire was able to sustain the tiny dose a little better, but once their coughing fits were over, she wiped her mouth with her hand and coughed one last time.

"God, that did not go over well," she hissed. Stefan straightened with a heave and she patted his back. "You're okay, Stefan. You're okay."

Eventually, he straightened and became better, too, and the two vampires stared at each other. Stefan shook his head. "How is it even possible that a vampire could compel another vampire?"

She shrugged. "Maybe it's because he's an Original."

"I don't really know what that means." Stefan leaned against his desk with another sigh. "I don't think anybody really knows what that means. Well, except...maybe Isobel. I'll be sure to ask her."

Claire scowled. "Stefan! I told you that little tidbit of information so we could _laugh _about it, not actually go through with it!"

"I've got to go." Stefan reached into his dresser and pulled out a shirt to button up over his white undershirt. "Promised your sister I would meet her back at the King house once I showered and changed. Don't worry about it, Claire, I'll handle it. You won't have to worry about a thing."

"I doubt that!" she scolded as he walked out of the room with a wave to her, leaving her extremely frustrated.

* * *

Delia sat by the fire in the Salvatore study, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. It wasn't cold to anyone else, but to her, it felt like the entire house had been submerged in the depths of the ocean. Cold sweats were already forming on her brow, and Rose was sitting beside her with a concerned, nail-biting look on her face as she desperately attempted not to freak out at her sister's pale look. Damon walked into the study, joining the two sisters with a bag of blood in his hand from the basement.

"You know, Rose and I are nearly 560 years old," she said loudly to Damon as he walked in on them.

"If you were a bottle of wine..." Damon mused. Delia sighed.

"560 years is a very long time, Damon." She looked over at her sister with sad eyes. "It's sad that I'm scared it isn't long enough."

The dark-haired Salvatore reached down and grabbed the empty glass that had previously been filled with bourbon Damon kept supplying for the older vampire. With a snide tone, he poured the blood from the bag into the empty crystal. "You know, if you're just gonna be maudlin, I'm just gonna kill you myself. Just to put me out of your misery."

Rose sighed heavily. "Damon, you are doing the opposite of helping right now."

"Oh, come on! It's just a little werewolf bite," he said lightly. Delia started to chuckle softly, despite her pale look.

"Exactly! I mean, seriously, Rose...it's only a werewolf bite that has been told to be fatal to vampires, right?" said the vampire sarcastically, looking up at Damon with a smirk and tauntingly sad eyes. Damon, however, countered her.

"Well, according to a legend, which is a notoriously unreliable source." He handed her the glass full of human blood. "Drink up. Blood heals."

Delia drank a little bit of the blood from the glass, earning impossible stares from the vampire sitting around her in the study, and once she managed to get the blood to slide down her throat, she felt a bit of relief flood over her. With a nod, she looked at her companions. "You're right, it kind of feels better."

"Well let's have a look. Let me see." Delia turned her body as Damon let his fingers slide over the blanket on her shoulders. Rose stood up from her seat by the fire and she looked over Damon's broad physique to see the bite on her sister's skin had not only gotten worse, but was spreading down the right side of her back. Rose covered her mouth with her hand and tried to keep from crying while Damon couldn't take his eyes off the wound, feeling an enormous amount of guilt eating away at him. From her oblivious standpoint, Delia asked them, "How is it?"

Damon hesitated, then lied, "D-Definitely..._better_. Right, Rose?"

"Yeah..." Rose trailed off, unable to be the one to admit that the wolf bite was going to be the inevitable act that killed off her sister. Damon nodded.

"Yep. Yeah. It is getting better, isn't it, Claire?" The Salvatore looked up to watch as the unpopular blonde walked into the study cautiously, eyeing the wound on Delia's back that she had seen the night before and knew, like all the other vampires, was getting worse. Claire didn't want to coddle Delia—she wanted the exact opposite, actually, but it seemed unfair to ruin the life of an already sick person.

So, blatantly lying, Claire nodded with her lips sealed tight. "Mmhmm. It's not bad at all."

"Where's Stefan?" Damon hissed.

"He went to see Amelia, but you and I need to talk. Katherine told me that going to find Isobel would help find out more about Klaus but I, for one, think it's a terrible idea. Not only because I hate Isobel with all my heart and soul but because Elena's worried that will upset her deal with Elijah." Claire crossed her arms. "So...talk to him."

He frowned. "I didn't hear a 'please'."

"You don't get a please."

Giving up, Damon eventually sighed and shrugged at her. "Sorry, sugar. No can do. I'm with Stefan on this one. Hey, but since we're trading favors, you want to stay here for a while and play nurse while I run out?"

Rose watched as Damon started to leave the room and shook her head. "Damon, I can handle my sister alone. Claire doesn't need to make herself uncomfortable."

Delia snorted. "Right, because let's all worry about how _Claire's _feeling right now."

Without responding to either comments from the sisters, Claire followed Damon out of the study and caught up to him. "I'm not playing nurse, Damon. Not for her."

Damon rolled his eyes and turned around at her, whispering quietly and sourly, "Oh, forgive me for thinking that you would actually put aside your hatred for a dying woman."

"Let's be real, here, she does _not _want me to be the one with her while she dies and we all know that."

"Well someone needs to stay with her and Rose. Rose might think she can handle it, but honestly, I think she's gonna crack. Her sister's about to die, after all." He let out an exasperated sigh. "The wolf bite caused some kind of infection. It's getting worse."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, like...like some kind of poison or something?"

"I don't know, Claire, I'm not an expert in the field."

She shifted uncomfortably and crossed her arms. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about what's happening to her. You two were obviously close."

"Shit happens," Damon snapped coldly. Claire snapped her eyes up to meet his erratic blue ones and she grimaced at him. "I know you're not too pleased with me for what you found out yesterday but it happened. And death happens, too. We come, we go. Sooner she dies, the better. It's gloomy as hell in here."

Right when Damon was about to turn on his heel and leave the house, the front door opened to a cautious Elena stepping inside. She looked around and eventually saw Claire and Damon standing in the hallway and joined them with a concerned look. "Hey. What the hell is going on? Claire said something about Delia..."

"Delia got bitten by Jules last night," Damon told Elena quietly. Elena widened her eyes. "Yes, it's a wolf bite. Yes, it's fatal. Yes, you can stay here and be a do-gooder. Thanks, Elena...appreciate it."

With a small, bitter smile, Damon brushed past her and walked towards the door. Elena turned back to Claire, ultimately confused, but Claire shook her head tightly. "Stay here and help Rose. Against my better judgement, I'm going with _him_."

And, though she dreaded the decision she was about to make, Claire stepped out of the boarding house in pursuit of the one Salvatore brother she blatantly did not feel like being around.

* * *

_"You two are triggering my gag reflex." _

_Delia and Peter heard the sound and gasped immediately, coming up from air under the sheets of their hotel room as Clarissa King sauntered forward with her eyes disinterested and her arms crossed over her chest. It was a very typical stance and look for a vampire without emotions, which Clarissa had explicitly made clear more than a few times with her unadulterated slaughters. The couple in the bed were both lying, panting, and watched as Clarissa sat down on the bench at the foot of the bed. Delia slid forward into a sitting position and clutched the white sheets to her chest. _

_"Clarissa, what the hell are you doing in our room? You have your own." _

_Clarissa traced her finger along the bedpost. "Wow. These beds have a lot of dust on them. I never really noticed before." _

_"Is this normal for an emotionless vampire?" Peter asked aloud without thinking. Delia slapped her hands to her sides as Claire turned at Peter with a slick smile.  
_

_"I can show you what's normal for an emotionless vampire, cupcake, all you gotta do is ask." _

_"'Cupcake' is my word." Delia ran a hand through her hair. "So get out, cupcake." _

_"But I'm bored," Clarissa whined as she turned to the both of them and rose on her knees like a four-year-old, exasperated. "Come on, I want something to eat! Unless you're going to share him." Clarissa's eyes roamed over the naked Peter and she licked her lips. "God, he would taste delicious." _

_Delia reached behind her and grabbed a pillow, where she threw it at Clarissa while keeping the sheet in her hand clutched to her chest. Clarissa caught the pillow mid-air, but the action did not go unnoticed. "Clarissa, I said get out!" _

_"You're the one who wanted me to stay in this hotel with you and your delectable boyfriend, in case you've forgotten."  
_

_"Yes, because you're terrorizing the entire town and if I hadn't told you to knock it off, another vampire would've just killed you. And I'm still waiting for a 'thank you'." _

_Peter frowned. "But she's emotionless, which means she __doesn't feel gratitude, which means_—"

_"Baby, I love you, but shut your goddamn mouth," Delia snapped, looking over at her human boyfriend and compelling him quickly. He remained quiet while Clarissa smiled. _

_"I like him. I like him a lot." _

_"Hands off," Delia swung herself out of the bed and grabbed her robe hanging on the bedpost. She tied it up before standing up and walking over to the blonde vampire. "Look, we can go out tonight, okay? Where I can keep an eye on you and go on a date at the same time. You can feed from...two people tonight, how does that sound?" _

_Clarissa grimaced as Delia pulled her towards the door. "It doesn't sound very fair. I want to kill, not feed." _

_"But if you kill, you'll blow our cover." _

_"But who cares?" _

_"I do!" Delia snapped as she opened the door and pushed Clarissa onto the other side, who rolled her eyes. "From now on, anyone you feed from, you leave alive!" _

_"Fucking emotions," Clarissa hissed under her breath as Delia closed the door in her face. She listened to inside the room as Delia was too caught up in finishing what she had started with her boyfriend before Clarissa interrupted. "I want food." _

_She was starting to hate Delia, the more she thought about it. She didn't mind her as a person, of course, but she wanted to eat. She wanted to feed. And she wanted to leave Los Angeles, kick Delia to the curb, and never think about it again. But she decided, after some thought, that there was something she wanted and couldn't have, which made it all the more fun. _

_Clarissa turned and heartlessly skipped back to her room, fantasizing about the different ways she could kill Delia's boyfriend. _

* * *

"I just don't understand why you felt the need to climb into my car and force yourself to spend the day with me," Damon snapped at Claire as they walked into the Grill to meet with Jules, who Alaric had informed them was eating lunch at the restaurant. Claire tried to keep up with his brisk pace but he was moving far too fast for even her.

"Believe me, I don't want to be with you right now any more than you want to be with me."

"Then why the hell are you here?"

"To make sure you don't piss anyone else off in this moody state you're in and they come after _me_ next!" Claire shouted at him, throwing her hands up in the air. But when they both spotted Jules sitting alone at a table in the middle of the Grill, and they looked at each other with intent. Claire tried to pull him back realizing what he was about to do, but Damon missed her and began to immediately sauntered towards the table. Luckily, he was able to be stopped, but by Amelia and Stefan, who joined them towards the front of the restaurant.

"Oh, hey, you're out of the tomb," Amelia deadpanned to Claire with a frown. Claire sighed.

"Sorry."

"Yeah. Couldn't even a send a postcard?"

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked Stefan and Amelia with frustrated eyes. Stefan looked at him with a concerned expression.

"Waiting for you. Listen, there's a lot of people here."

"Damn! There goes my plan to rip her spleen through her back!" Damon hissed at his brother. Stefan groaned and pulled Damon back to him as his brother tried to walk away.

"Hey! Listen, I know you're upset about Delia—"

"Why does everybody think I'm upset about Delia?" Damon scoffed.

Claire shrugged. "Maybe because the whole world knows that you slept with her."

Amelia gasped. "So you decided to tell her?"

"Did everyone but me know, Damon? Everyone?" the blonde turned to her dark-haired companion with a crossed stance and a pissed look in her eyes. Damon exhaled carefully and looked at the younger King.

"No, I did not _tell _her, Amelia. She walked in on us. Besides, I'm fine. I don't know if any of you know this, but sometimes vampires die." Everyone was silent upon this cold exclamation from Damon, who was obviously hurting more than he led them to believe. Damon looked at his brother. "I'm gonna have a friendly chat with lady wolf, brother. Ease up. And have no fear, for some impossible reason I can't explain, _this _one has decided not to leave my side today."

Damon turned on his heel, and though Stefan and Amelia wanted to go after him, Claire followed right behind while biting the inside of her cheek, wanting to turn around but unable not to follow Damon like he had described. Damon and Claire sat down at the table Jules was stationed at, and without looking up from her menu at first, Jules sighed.

"Well. If it isn't the one I meant to kill. I'll have to get that right next time." The wolf looked up at Claire while she took a sip of her drink. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

Claire scoffed. "Like I'm gonna give my name to a wolf. Please."

"She doesn't matter." Damon waved his hand in front of Claire and stared at Jules with dark eyes. "You won't live to see another full moon. Unless...unless you tell me how to cure a wolf bite. And then I won't kill you."

"Promise?" Jules asked him seriously.

Damon nodded. "Yes."

Jules took in a deep breath, and as Claire watched Damon's face turn abnormally serious and wait for an answer, Jules pulled out her purse and put money down for her meal before looking up at the vampire. "Bite me."

The wolf began to walk away from the table, but suddenly, Damon jumped up and grabbed her arm. Claire stood from the table as well, but she didn't move forward, she simply watched to make sure Damon didn't do anything stupid out in broad daylight. Jules smiled angrily and hissed, "I'm not afraid of you..."

"Then you are very, very stupid," Damon growled. But she knew the exact buttons to push.

"How's your friend? Delia? Is that her name? Have the chills started? The unbearable pain?"

"If there's a cure, tell me," he threatened, "or start watching your back."

She pushed on, "Did I mention the dementia? It'll eat away at her brain. Soon she'll be rabid!" Jules paused. "You want a cure? I'll tell you the only cure that exists. Take a stake and drive it through her heart."

Damon let her leave, watching as the wolf backed away, useless to him, and left with a smug smile and triumph written all over her face.

The two didn't talk much on their way back to the boarding house. He didn't feel like talking all that much, and if she were being honest, she felt the exact same way. There was something that Claire didn't like about the entire situation, not because Damon slept with someone else but because she felt guilty, guiltier than anyone else possibly could imagine. With Delia dying, all of the horrible memories of the things she did as an emotionless vampire in Los Angeles haunted her, and it was all beginning to build inside. The blood of the innocent was on her hands, and a ghost from one of those kills was back to haunt her. She thought she'd locked those memories deep in her mind, but it was all flooding out like the damn apocalypse was rising.

So when they entered the house, they found it immediately peculiar how the front door was sprung wide open and Elena was standing in the middle of the foyer with a wooden stake in her hand armed and ready to be used against whatever vampire attacked her.

"Elena..." Claire trailed off, causing the brunette to whip around with the stake gripped tightly and raised high. Claire and Damon both flinched away, but once Elena saw it was them, she relaxed.

"Are you okay?" Damon asked her and looked around. "Where's Rose?"

Elena set the stake down. "She went out to find Delia."

Claire cocked an eyebrow. "And...where's Delia?"

Elena swallowed. "I don't know."

* * *

Ten minutes after Damon, Claire, and Elena tried to devise a plan to find Rose and Delia since not only the sick sister but both sisters were AWOL, Damon received a call from Sheriff Forbes about none other than a vampire attack at the school. Immediately, the three drove over at top speed to Mystic Falls High and Damon and Claire met with the Sheriff a few yards away from the dead body lying by the garbage dumps.

"Thanks for coming so quickly," the Sheriff said to them as Damon and Claire approached. Damon nodded.

"No, we were close by. What happened?"

"A vampire. Luckily one of my deputies discovered the body before anyone else saw him," Liz explained. Claire looked around and shook her head.

"We need to get all of these teenagers out of here before someone sees. Secure the area," she suggested.

Liz, with a nod, turned to her deputies behind Damon's shoulder and shouted, "Don't cause a panic, but let's move this party into the cafeteria." She looked back at Damon and Claire. "I'll take the east side, you two go west?"

"Sure." Damon and Claire turned and began to walk back towards Elena, who was waiting by the car. Claire shook her head.

"Damon, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Delia just killed someone, Claire. Of course you have a bad feeling about this," he said quietly. She sighed.

"That wolf said that she's experiencing dementia. Elena said she kept rambling on about being human and tried to attack her own sister."

"We'll find her." Damon pushed her along and nodded. "We have to. Come on."

Right when they reached Elena, the human turned around and walked up to Damon and Claire with a worried look on her face, but it was more panicked than worried. "I have been trying to call Stefan for the last five minutes because I know he's trying to get Isobel back here, but he's not answering the hone. Have either of you heard from him? Do you know what he's up to?"

"Baby brother's not exactly my priority right now. Take this in case we can't have your back." Reaching discreetly inside of his jacket, Damon produced as wooden stake for Elena to take, and the human, with wide eyes, followed Damon and Claire as they set off in the direction they were assigned to find their loose vampire before she could kill another human.

Little did they know, Delia was still on school grounds, stumbling through the grass practically in plain sight. She had her arms wrapped around herself tightly and her teeth were chattering, but it wasn't cold. The dementia was, as Jules had said exclusively to Damon, eating away at her brain. The pain she endured stretched from the tip of her toes to the tip of her forehead, and it was extremely unbearable. It felt like her insides were disintegrating with every moment passed. All Delia wanted was for it to end—all she wanted, truly, was for her entire life to end. She did not want to be a vampire anymore. She wanted, she _needed _to die a human.

There was a voice behind her, a soft voice, pulling her out of the insanity she had fallen into. "Cordelia?"

Delia turned around, though startled, but saw the face of her sister. But instead of the Rose that was modern, she saw the face of her elder sister as a human, with long hair that stretched to her torso and features so bright that the sun behind them had no affect on her luminosity. Cordelia smiled.

"Rose-Marie," she whispered. "My, you look so wonderful. Perfect."

Rose swallowed hard, gulping down the fear that she had for her sister. Honestly, she was petrified, not only for her sister's life but for her own. Elena hadn't seen what had gone down because she had run upstairs before she could see the good part, but Cordelia had tried—and failed, thankfully—to murder her. It made Rose's eyes swell up with tears, but she tried to understand what would make her sister want to kill her so badly. All she kept hearing was the murmurings that Cordelia said, things like "we don't belong here anymore" or "Rose-Marie, it's time to leave".

"Cordelia, please stop this," Rose pleaded softly, eyeing the blood on her sister's lips. "This isn't who you are. I know what's happening to you, but it's not real."

The vision in front of Cordelia began to flicker, and Delia blinked her eyes a few times to maintain the sight of her human sister. Suddenly, the human vision before her faded, and all she saw was the vampire Rose, and she realized where she was and how she'd gotten to be there. Cordelia felt a tear streak down her cheek as she looked down at the grass.

"We were supposed to die that day." She sniffed and looked up at Rose. "In the fire, we were supposed to die. It was the end of our lives, we were _supposed _to die!"

"But we didn't, sister, we survived."

"No! We died! We died and became _monsters. _Creatures damned to the night to prey on the weak and vulnerable and suck life out of those who have it!" Cordelia sobbed, shaking her head and stepping back. She clenched and unclenched her fist nervously. "I want to die. I need to die."

"Cordelia, please stop." Rose stepped forward, still terrified, but willing to do whatever it took to be there for her sister. In the distance, she could hear the crowd chatting away. "Please, just let me take you home."

"Home?" Cordelia snapped. "What home? We don't have a home, Rose-Marie! We are orphans! We are homeless! We have nowhere to go, we have nothing to live for!"

"We have survived for too long to let it go to waste." By now, Rose had gotten to the point where she had her hand on her sister's shoulder, and carefully tested the waters by stepping closer. "You need to rest, Delia. Let me take you back."

"I don't want to be here anymore," Cordelia cried, stepping into Rose's arms. Her sister took her into the embrace without reservations, finding comfort in Delia's initiated embrace. "I deserve to die. I deserve peace."

"You can have all the peace in the world." Rose patted her sister's hair and kept in her tears as Delia sobbed into her shoulder. "Shh, sister, don't cry. We're gonna be oka—"

Rose stopped. To anyone overlooking their embrace, it would've seemed unnecessary and strange. But to Delia, who hid her face in her sister's neck and cried salted tears of misery into her sister's jacket, she knew the truth. Rose's body dropped with gravity, and Delia was left standing upright, tears streaking down her face and rings around her eyes from the paleness and purpleness the sickness had caused her. In her hand, she held the heart of her sister, and she whispered very quietly through her sobbing, "You deserve peace, too."

"Delia!"

Damon flashed up behind the whimpering vampire, who dropped her sister's dead heart in her hand and let it fall to the ground all while sobbing so hard that she couldn't see. Claire and Elena were behind them, stopping short right as they saw the scene before them: Rose's dead body on the ground, the blood covering Delia's hand and the way the miserable vampire cried. Damon fell to his knees right as Delia went to the ground, crying without being able to get a word out through her mouth. Damon tried to rock her, to soothe her, but he was shocked as well at what she had done.

"Delia," he whispered quietly. "Delia, it's me. Delia, it's Damon. It's Damon. Shh."

"I killed her," Cordelia sobbed, letting up on her cries as she tried to get away from Damon's grasp, but he wouldn't let her for the sake of her own sanity. Her eyes went wide. "I killed my sister. I killed my sister. I _killed _my sister." She started to cry again, harder this time, and her words came out jumped. "I d-didn't mean to do this, I never wanted to die, I wanted peace. I wanted us to have peace, I wanted us to..."

"I know." Damon's voice was soft and melancholic. "I know."

"I'm sorry," Cordelia hiccuped. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..." Damon tried to pull her up, but she doubled over on the ground. "Please, make it stop! _Please _make it stop! Please!"

"Come on." Damon pulled her into his arms, unable to get Delia moving on her own. He looked back at Claire and down at Rose's body with a solemn look. He started to say something, but Claire shook her head.

"I got it," she promised. Locking eyes, he nodded at her, and then turned around with the sobbing, sick vampire in his arms to bring her home.

* * *

_"Peter!" Delia shouted happily as she walked into the hotel room with two garment bags on her back. "Peter, I got us tickets to that new premiere tonight for_—"

_She stopped, dead cold, in the middle of the room as she looked upon the bed. The garment bags dropped to the floor, right at her feet, and she felt a scream catch in her throat. Vampires did not scream, but this was one of the times when she felt that she was not a vampire. Delia looked upon the body of her boyfriend, lying ravaged in the king-sized bed that was once white but was now stained with impossible amounts of red. She walked over to the side of the bed, tears swelling up in her eyes as she looked over Peter's corpse, covered in tiny little vampire bites. On his neck, on his wrists, on his biceps, on his stomach, on his hips...they were everywhere. Someone had drained him, ruthlessly, viciously, and without remorse. _

_She didn't know what to do. Delia didn't know whether to scream or cry or punch or kick or even kill. She climbed onto the bed, unaware of what she was doing, and she cried while trying to shake Peter up, the man she loved_—_the human she loved. The word "no" kept escaping her mouth, but she couldn't say anything else. _

_Just then, as she panicked and looked around for some sign that this was not real, she found a glass of champagne, freshly bubbling, on the nightstand with a card lying underneath it. But the champagne was not its regular golden color, it was tainted with blood that turned it more pink than anything. She lifted the champagne glass with shaking hands and grabbed the card as its coaster, holding her breath. _

_On the card, in delicate handwriting stained with traces of Peter's blood, it read: _

I was right. He was delicious.

-C.K.

* * *

After the tragedy that happened at the school, Delia woke in Damon's bed to find the dark-haired vampire standing over her as she slept off the crying. His big blue eyes were waiting for her the moment she woke.

"Hi, there," he whispered. Delia swallowed thickly as she remembered what she'd done.

"Please tell me I did not do what I think I did." Damon's eyes flickered down, and she bit down on her shaking bottom lip. "Oh. So I did."

"There's nothing you can do about it now." Damon brushed a piece of sweaty hair out of her eyes. "Your sister wouldn't have lasted a single day without you, anyways. She would've done what you did...eventually."

"I murdered my own sister," Delia whispered shamefully. "How am I supposed to live with—" She stopped. "Oh. Right."

Damon was about to say something, but he realized that for once, he didn't know what to say. What could he say? She murdered her own sister, she was right about that much. What was someone supposed to say to that? But he realized that he didn't have to when another presence entered into the room, and he turned around and growled, "You shouldn't be in here, Claire."

"I need to talk to her." Claire walked into the room and looked around at Delia with broken eyes. "Please."

"It's okay, Damon," Delia admitted softly. The dark-haired vampire turned and let Claire walk over to his bed, the bed she knew too well, and sit down at the edge. He kept his back turned and listened while Claire softly sat down and hesitated for a moment.

"Delia, I wanted to come here and apologize to you." Things were quiet; dead silent, actually, and Claire took in a deep breath. "What I did...back in LA...it was terrible. I shoved it in the back of my mind when I turned my emotions on and I never thought twice about it because it hurt too much. I will never be able to forgive myself for what I've done to you, and you have every right in the world to hate me, to blame me, to tie me up and torture me, and even...even to take something that is so deeply rooted into me. I will never ask for your forgiveness, but I just need to know that you know how sorry I am for what I did."

No one spoke, not for a while. Damon stood with his back to the two other vampires in the room and he listened while Claire waited, not at all expecting Delia to forgive her. She didn't want forgiveness. Even if she had it, she knew she wouldn't forgive herself for what she did. Killing someone, anyone, was not something that she liked to do. She hated it, more than anything in the world. Because that person was someone that someone else loved or cherished, and it was never fair to them.

Delia was quiet in her response. "That's the worst part about it; the hunt, the need to kill, the thirst, the pleasure it brings you afterwards. I wasn't meant to be evil, and I'm sure you weren't, either. It hurts."

"Then stop talking about it," Damon snapped at them without turning back. Claire and Delia looked over at him, but Delia chuckled softly under her breath.

"You and Damon have a lot more in common than you both realize." Delia looked over at Claire, who let her eyes linger on Damon's back for a moment before tearing them away to look at the floor in thought. "You can pretend that you don't want to care, pretend that feelings are just an intangible thing that don't explain anything. But I've lived long enough to know that caring is a part of what makes life..._life. _You want to care, but the minute you do, you run away from it. That's why you turned off your emotions, Clarissa. Why you did what you did to the man I loved." A tear ran down her cheek at the thought of it. "Why I can't forgive you."

"I don't expect you to. Not one bit."

"After everything I did to you, why are you treating me with kindness when I refuse to treat you the same?"

"Because I was human once," Claire told her carefully. "And I cared. Though it's a part of me that gets in my way most of the time, I choose to live with it. Because without it, I wouldn't know who I am."

"You can never forget it," said the vampire softly. "What it's like to be human, I mean. It haunted my sister, and it haunted me for our entire lives. But it's the only thing that kept Rose from breaking." Delia's smile wavered. "And she was the only thing that kept _me _going."

It was tragic; more than tragic, actually, but Claire couldn't say anything to make it better. Before their heart-to-heart could continue, Delia began to cough, and soon that cough turned into gagging, and soon that gagging turned into screaming. Damon pushed Claire off the bed and climbed into it himself with Delia's head on his lap, but Claire refused to leave at first.

"Damon..."

"Go." Damon looked up at her and nodded. "Just go, Claire, I've got this."

He looked back down at Delia, trying to sooth her by stroking her hair and hushing her to calm her nerves, and Claire, though reluctant, decided that it was best to leave like he asked.

* * *

After taking care of what he needed to with Sheriff Forbes, wrapping up the vampire case at Mystic Falls High so that he wouldn't have to kill _another _vampire in the same night, Damon found that Claire had taken the entire Grill hostage for her own. He'd only gone to get a drink for himself, but then he found that the entire bar was empty, and the only person inside was a certain blonde vampire sitting up on the bartop with a bottle of tequila in her hand, pouring it straight into her mouth. With one problem gone and another arisen, Damon sighed and stepped inside against the tiny voice in the back of his head telling him to stay out.

Claire gulped down her alcohol and watched as Damon walked into the bar. She wiped her hand on her mouth and shook her head. "Uh, uh! No. This bar's mine, buddy, go find your own."

"Claire, what the hell are you doing?" Damon said, slightly irritated. "I don't have time to worry about you. Not tonight."

"Sorry I'm such an inconvenience." She swallowed another gulp of straight tequila without flinching, but keeping her eyes locked on him. Once she finished the shot, she set the bottle in her lap and bit her lip. "Delia...?"

"It's done." Damon nodded. "Delia and her sister are buried next to each other in the woods behind the high school."

"I marked it so you'd see," she whispered.

"I know."

But as she nursed the bottle of tequila in her hand, Damon lifted himself onto the bar stool beside her feet and grabbed the bourbon behind the counter. She watched him as he popped the cap open and took a leisurely drink right from the bottle like she had. Things were very quiet until she spoke, very softly, "Why'd you do it?"

"Because she was dying," Damon said in an obvious tone. She shook her head.

"I didn't mean that. I meant...why'd you do _it_?" He glanced up at her, still unsure of her question, so she elaborated with an exhale, "Why'd you sleep with her, Damon? Why?"

"Why do you feel like you're entitled to ask me that?" he growled under his breath and drank another swallow from his bottle. "You don't get the right to question me. You and I are not together, Claire, and you have no right to treat me like I'm yours."

She hopped off the counter angrily. "I'm not saying that you're mine, Damon, I'm asking you why you slept with her. Because no matter what we're fighting about, no matter who I want to be with, at the end of the day...you knew all she wanted was to get back at me—you _knew _it. So why don't you just come out and admit it?"

"Admit what?"

"Admit that you hate me!" she shrieked, more passionate than usual, but that was more the alcohol talking than her. Damon stood from the bar stool, leaving his bottle on the countertop. He watched her as she gripped her tequila bottle tight and looked at him with drunk eyes full of uncertainty. "Because I can't think of another reason why you would want to hurt me."

Damon hesitated, watching her closely wondering if he wanted to have this conversation with her while she was drunk—vampire drunk, that was, which was even twice as bad as regular drunk. He shook his head. "Isn't that what this is all about? Isn't that what we've been convincing ourselves for the past century? That we hate each other?"

"I may throw..." She waved around her bottle and breathed out, "tequila bottles at you and glasses and...I don't know, hair dryers or whatever, but I don't want to hurt you. I never have." Her eyes sparkled in the dim lighting, and he fought the urges inside of him to tell her how he felt. He had already endured enough emotion within him in one day. "I don't hate you, Damon. I don't hate you at all."

He watched as she stumbled backwards, whether on purpose or by default, he didn't know, but all he knew was that she had to get home before she did something she regretted. He walked her to his car, drove her home despite her drunken protests and mumbles of sleep and hate and whatever she was talking about, but when he got inside the house, he got tired of her dragging against him and he just picked her up in his arms and carried her up to her room. It was a long day, and he didn't feel like discussing what she wanted to discuss while drunk. He just wanted her to go to sleep and not bother him until morning.

"You know..." Claire swallowed tiredly as Damon set her down in her bed under the sheets. He pulled off her shoes as she murmured, "Everything you've done here...in Mystic Falls, I mean...everything you've done makes me think that you're not the villain you thought you were."

Damon scoffed. "If you were even going to remember that statement tomorrow, you would punch yourself for it."

"Oh, Damon, quit playing; I'm serious." He pulled the covers over her and turned to leave when she grabbed his hand and stopped him. Damon turned back at her, still unwilling to do what she wanted, but looked at her pretty blue eyes as she stared up at him in her haze. "I knew you when you were human. I know you now. I might spite you with words every...few hours, but there's little that's changed." She dropped his hand and rolled against her pillow. "Human Damon's in there somewhere. Just gotta find him."

Damon was quiet, for the longest time, when he whispered, "Goodnight, Clarissa."

"G'night," she hummed. It was the last thing she said before he heard her finally go to sleep, and he snuck out of her room with his heart pounding, his head hurting, and his emotions flooding too rapidly that he felt it like a boulder.

* * *

Elena heard the doorbell ring late at night, which instantly made her suspicious, but when she opened the door expecting it to be Alaric or someone like that, she found that Stefan and Amelia were standing on her porch step, side by side. It was an awkward sight, sure, but Elena was mature enough to handle it. She looked at them with her eyebrows knotted.

"Hey..." Her eyes shifted between them. "What's going on?"

"So, we called Isobel." Amelia nodded her head a few times. "You know, your biological mom."

"I know." Elena looked at Stefan. "I was trying to call you, I wanted you to stop. My deal with Elijah is strict, Stefan, and I can't have you going around—"

"Elena, we're just trying to help," Stefan told her. She sighed heavily. "We had to. Even if you had reached me, I still would've called her."

Elena bit down on the inside of her cheek, deciding whether or not to slam the door in the vampires' faces or not. Instead of doing such a childish thing, she nodded and crossed her arms. "Fine. Did you find her?"

"Not exactly." From behind Stefan and Amelia, John Gilbert emerged and walked right up to the threshold. Elena tensed, and he smiled at her. "Hello, Elena."

"Uncle John."

* * *

It barely registered with Damon what was happening until he was forced to register it in his mind. He was lying in the middle of the road, the bottle of bourbon in his hand that he had snatched from the Grill that Claire had closed for herself, when a pair of headlights shone in his eyes and someone climbed out of their car and rushed over to him. Truthfully, he didn't know how he ended up on the road or why he was there, he just knew that every part inside of him ached. Feelings felt like tiny little holes, and he had a bunch of them. He barely realized that he was being addressed by whoever had climbed out of their car.

"Sir, are you okay?" He groaned. "What happened?"

Damon paused. "I'm...lost."

"And you're laying in the middle of the road?" she filled in for him, confused.

Again, he groaned, sighing heavily, and straightened. "Not that kind of lost. Metaphorically. Existentially."

"Do you need help?"

"Well..." He brought the bottle to his mouth and took a large sip before continuing, "Yes. I do. Can you help me?"

A look of realization crossed the citizen's face. "You're drunk."

"...Yes, a little...maybe." With widened eyes, he watched as she started to walk away from him towards the car that waited for her, and he immediately fought, "No! Please don't leave! I really do need help!" She ignored him and kept walking, so Damon flashed over to her and gripped the girl by her shoulders as she gasped. His erratic eyes looked into that of the human's and he compelled her, "Don't move."

"I don't want any trouble," she huffed.

"Neither do I." The smell of alcohol and tears were unmistakable in his breath. "But all I got is trouble."

He moved away to drink more of the bourbon out of the bottle, and therefore the motionless human squeaked out, "Why can't I move?"

Damon ignored her question, threw the empty bourbon glass to the side so that the sound of glass shattering was a few feet away from them, and he placed his cold hands on her shoulders with a sly, drunken smile. "What's your name?"

"J-Jessica..."

"Jessica," he repeated. "I have a secret. I have a big one! But I've never said it out loud! I mean...what's the point? It's not gonna change anything! It's not gonna make me good! Make me adopt a puppy! It's not gonna make me be the hero she wants me to be—I _can't _be what other people want me to be. What _she _wants me to be." He gripped the human tightly. "This is who I am, Jessica."

Jessica's entire body shook as she asked, "Are you going to hurt me?"

"I'm not sure. Because you...you're my existential crisis." His hands cupped her face as he leaned in and whispered darkly, "Do I kill you? Do I not kill you?"

"Please don't," she sobbed. Damon took a step back.

"But I have to, Jessica! Because I'm not human! And I miss it. I miss it more than anything in the _world_!" Damon paused, his hands shaking as he stared at her with coldness in his eyes. "_That _is my secret. But there's only...s-so much hurt a man can take."

"Please, don't!" Jessica bursted, her eyes filling with water as she studied the madman before her. Damon stepped forward this time.

"Okay," he told her after a while. His eyes looked into hers and he compelled reluctantly, "You're free to go."

The second his tongue said the last syllable, Jessica was off, running towards her car like it would even make a difference. Damon looked back at her, wondering if he should let her go, and he was about to—oh, he was about to. Then, something crashed over him like a flood, and he couldn't help it. The monster inside of him attacked, and he tore into Jessica's throat like he wanted to, drained every single drop of blood from her body, and she fell to the ground.

Dead.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review, please!**

* * *

**NicoleR85: **She wasn't all that much in this chapter but she will be in the next one! Thanks for reviewing!

**Ain'tEasyBeingBreezy: **Aw thanks! Here's the update!

**Silently Tearful: **Like he kind of explained in this chapter, he really didn't feel she had a right to be mad at him. The thing about Damon is that he might feel bad about doing it, but he's not going to let her know that...especially after everything they've been through. Hahaha, that would normally be an odd statement but I know exactly what you mean! Thanks for the review!

**Guest: **Aw, Human Clarissa kind of escaped her and she felt a little bad about what she did. Besides, it was a pretty awful thing to do to someone...kind of string them up all cross-like on a bed and drain them of all their blood and leave a real cryptic note about it to their girlfriend. I was kind of cringing writing it, honestly...oh, she definitely made Damon feel like shit for it. Definitely. Claire's not turning anything off though...not for a very long time. Thanks for the review!

**grapejuice101: **Yeah, her life kind of sucks! Anyways, thanks for the review!

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**Momsen-xxxx: **He felt guilty but kind of also pissed off because she technically doesn't really have a right...which Claire kind of knows, too. I'm trying to really emphasize her selfishness because if I'm being blatant, she's a super selfish character. But that's what makes Claire...Claire. BADASS CLAIRE IS THE BOMB. We'll see that more in the next episode when the wolves kidnap Caroline.

**Tvd2014: **Well here's another one for you! Yep, Katherine's like the little devil on Claire's shoulder telling her what she doesn't want to hear but knows deep down inside. Which is kind of where all this anger is coming from, you know? Claire's been sleeping with Damon since the '20s and even though she really hates to admit it, she cares about him. And yeah, she definitely didn't entertain the idea of him sleeping with another girl, that's for sure. Yep! Not all that romantic at the beginning portion but I can tell you that in 2x18 Claire and Damon will finally realize this romantic potential between the two of them.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **I would have Claire hit him...but she's done it way too often that it kind of seemed more effective for her to just get stupidly drunk and call him out on all of his shit. Thanks for reviewing!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Trust me on this one, Claire's not going to be turning off her emotions any time within this season or the next. Christopher WILL be coming back this season though. 2x18. Be prepared...


	27. Daddy Issues

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Daddy Issues**

"You brought back John Gilbert?" Damon asked his brother incredulously as Stefan and Amelia stood in Stefan's room across from the elder Salvatore. "That was your big 'Save Elena' move?"

"We went to go look for Isobel, and we got John instead." Stefan shrugged. "He said he could help us and...we're desperate!"

"We're not that desperate, Stefan! The guy tried to barbecue me and Claire!"

Amelia sighed. "Look, Bonnie met a witch right around the time that Elena and Claire were taken by Rose and Delia and we got into this whole mess. Therefore, since Bonnie was stupid enough to take it to said witch, we have to assume that the moonstone was never destroyed. Ergo, this stupid sacrifice is still in place and Claire is still at risk of being used as a vampire battery pack."

"And Elena is putting all of her faith into some deal that she made with Elijah to keep everyone safe," Stefan added. Damon paced back and forth, trying to put together the pros and cons. "I mean, do you trust Elijah? I don't trust him. He's an Original; he can't be trusted! It's not like we can just go up and kill him because apparently, he can't die!"

"Still waiting for the part where John Gilbert is the answer," Damon prompted them. Amelia stepped forward.

"Isobel told John about the sacrifice, which makes him useful. He said he knew of a way to keep Elena safe."

"And how do we do that?"

"He's not talking," Stefan told his brother cautiously. "At least, not to us, anyway."

Damon sighed, exasperated, and mused sarcastically, "Great work, you guys! Top notch! As if I didn't have enough problems without Barbie and Ken running around here creating more for me. Thanks."

Without saying anything more, Damon turned to step out of the room. Right as he did, Stefan called him back with his voice as he apologized, "Hey, I'm sorry about Delia."

But by now, Damon was done admitting his feelings flat out to everyone like it was a parade. He turned around with a disgusted look on his face.

"Whatever. I knew the woman for...five minutes."

"And you cared about her after...five minutes, though," said Stefan slowly. "I wonder what that means."

Damon sighed. "It means I care, Stefan."

Beside Stefan, Amelia gasped quietly. "Oh, my God, I did _not _see that one coming!"

Damon shot her a frown. "It means I'm changing and evolving into a man capable of _greatness_." The sarcastic venom dripped off his voice and Amelia grimaced at him, realizing his sarcasm and was unappreciative of it. Damon looked up at his brother with a sly smile. "You better watch your back. Because I may just have to go get a hero hairdo of my own and steal your thunder."

Finally, Damon was able to leave his brother's room, and he bounced down the stairs to find Claire walking out of from the hallway leading to the basement with a glass of blood in her hands. She was walking into the parlor, ignoring him, when Damon caught up to her.

"Get your coat," he demanded. She turned around at him and scoffed.

"And why would I listen to your demands?"

"Because John Gilbert is back in town." Claire's eyes widened. "Yep. And you're the only one besides me who knows that this is a bad idea. So get your coat, sugar, we're heading over to the Gilbert's."

"But..." Claire looked down at her blood, and Damon rolled his eyes as he grabbed her glass and downed every drop of human blood before slamming it down on the table behind the couch. Claire growled. "Hey, that was my breakfast!"

"Come on." He grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door, where she had no choice but to oblige.

* * *

The moment they arrived at the Gilbert house and Elena answered the door, Damon walked through the threshold with a snarl, "Where's John?"

Claire sighed and followed him in. "Hello, Elena."

"Hey, Claire," Elena said, exasperated with Damon's behavior as well as she turned and found him looking all around the house. She said to him, "He's not here, Damon, he left. I don't know where he went, he just..blew in, announced to Jenna that he's my dad, and then took off."

"That's public knowledge now?" Damon asked, concerned. The human shrugged.

"Apparently!"

"Are you okay?" Claire asked, seeing the distressed look on the teenager's face. Elena looked up at her and shifted, uncertain, and eventually nodded.

"Yeah...Jenna's head is spinning, but I'm okay."

"He say what he was doing here?" Damon intervened.

The teenager pulled her mug of coffee to her with a scoff. "No. You know, Stefan and Amelia both think that he's telling the truth about wanting to help me."

"You believe him?" Claire asked.

"No. I don't believe him for a second," Elena admitted. Damon narrowed his eyes.

"Now that makes three of us." He looked over at Claire, who crossed her arms and stared back at him, stuck.

"So...what do we do now?"

"Kill him." Without elaborating, Damon walked towards the door, where Claire rolled her eyes.

"Of course. Classic Damon..."

"I'm joking!" he defended himself and turned around to meet the suspicious eyes of two women before him. He paused and confessed, "Okay...I'm a little serious."

"Damon!" Elena shouted at him in a scolding tone. He rolled his eyes as well.

"I'm not gonna hurt him, _Elena. _I'm the good guy now, remember?"

"Since when?" She scoffed. Elena looked between the blonde vampire and the dark-haired one with curious eyes and gasped. "Wait a second, does this mean...?"

"Not this again." Damon groaned at her. Elena smiled, but Claire was absolutely oblivious. She looked back and forth between Damon and Elena with curiosity.

"Sorry, am I missing something here?"

"Yeah, the part where Elena's going around town with her little pom-poms cheering 'Damon and Claire, Damon and Claire!' And I'm sure there's a nickname she already thought up in her head." Damon gave an irritated look and started towards the door as Claire was taken back, immediately surprised. He opened the door and said kindly, "I'm gonna have a civil conversation with your father, okay, Elena? I will handle it."

And Damon crossed the threshold, out into the daylight, while Claire stared back at Elena with disappointed eyes. "You know, it's kind of sad that you do that in your free time."

Elena scowled. "Just...come _on. _We're going with him."

The brunette teenager grabbed her jacket from the coat rack and started outside, where Claire was left with limited time to meander as she walked over to the door and pulled it shut, murmuring a sour "okay" underneath her breath as she followed Damon and Elena into his car. It didn't take long to drive over to the Mystic Grill, where Damon decided would be their best bet, and sure enough they walked inside to find John Gilbert standing at a table with Jenna and Alaric. Once inside, Damon sauntered towards Elena's biological father, but Claire yanked him back.

"We're here to get answers, not to turn the town upside down. I don't feel like being barbecued again, if you don't mind. Don't do anything stupid," she warned him. He sighed.

"Yeah, but stupid's so much more _fun_!"

"Hey!" she barked as he tried to walk forward again, agitated further when she pulled him back yet again. Her voice was soft as she quoted, "'Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that'."

"What the hell are you mumbling about?"

"It's a quote, jackass." Claire frowned at him. "From Martin Luther King, Jr. Why don't you try brushing up on that thing we call the past?"

"I know what the quote is, I just don't know—or care—what the hell it means."

"Oh, my God," she moaned, exasperated with him. Her eyes gave an inevitable roll around the room as she explained, "Just pretend, for two seconds, to be the better man, okay? We have tried being jerks to him and it didn't work. Time to start the other approach. If you can't handle it, _I _will."

He stared down at her, and eventually sighed. "Fine. I'll handle it." He walked over to John with Elena and Claire trailing him a little ways away, and a bitter smile crossed Damon's face as he exclaimed, "John, buddy, how have you been?"

John bit, playing along with Damon's game. "I've been all right." He spied his daughter with the two vampires, but then looked at Claire and and Damon. "Claire. It's good to see you."

"Pleasure. As always," Claire said sweetly, but had to admit that it was definitely harder than it looked.

"I was just about to sit down with Jenna and Alaric, here." John gestured towards the couple sitting at the table in front of him. Jenna gave him a sour smile.

"No he wasn't."

Things between all of the adults—with the exclusion of Elena who, though handled herself like an adult, was still a teenager—went silent for an awkwardly long time. Eventually, John's lips just turned up into a small, pleasantly feigned smile and he turned on his heel with a kind, "Excuse me."

Everyone watched John walk away from the table and towards the small memorial set up in the Grill to honor those lost in the town of Mystic Falls since death seemed to wreak havoc on the entire population, obviously due to the high population of vampires and supernatural creatures in the town. Damon and Claire exchanged a second-long look and Damon walked away from her in the direction that John had gone, trying hard to listen to what she had asked him earlier. He watched as John lit up a candle with a match.

"So, John, rumor has it you know a _lot _and won't say anything," Damon started, coming up behind the Gilbert.

"How do I know you can be trusted, Damon?" he countered. "Originals can compel vampires. And according to Stefan, that's why Katherine is still in the tomb—because an Original has compelled her to stay there."

Damon struck a match on the matchbox he had picked up from the table beside him. "Only because all the vervain had left her system. Stefan, Claire, Amelia, and I on the other hand, are chocked full." He blew the match in John's face and smiled as the smoke enveloped the presence of his enemy.

"You guys are drinking vervain?"

The vampire shrugged. "It's an acquired taste. I don't see that magic little ring on your stitched finger, so if you know something about Klaus, you better start talking or I will kill you in your _sleep_."

It had turned from a light-hearted comeback to a threat in mere seconds as Damon whispered the words venomously in Uncle John's ear. The tough human didn't flinch and watched as Damon took a step back and stared coldly right into his eyes. John sighed.

"Now, is that any way to convince me that you and I are on the same side? First, I need to know that I can trust you, Damon. That I can count on you. Then we'll talk."

* * *

"Is everything okay between you and Damon?" Elena asked tentatively as she and Claire stood at one of the tall tables just outside the platformed bar. Claire was drinking a strong dosage of scotch and Elena had a glass of water in her hand, deciding to take the more human route. Claire looked up from her drink, confused.

"Yeah. Nothing...worse than usual. Why?" She cocked an eyebrow as Elena shook her head immediately.

"No, I just...well, with everything that happened with Delia and you being in the tomb, I just assumed that...you know, there was something...different. You knew about Damon and Delia, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I knew." Claire sipped her drink frustratedly. "And I wasn't all that enthusiastic about it."

"Were you jealous?"

Elena watched as Claire's eyes blinked for a moment and reopened to face Elena with a disapproving look. "Don't even start, okay? I already got yelled at by Damon last night...though, I'm gonna be completely honest and say that it was a little blurry because I probably had a blood-alcohol level most humans would die from." Seeing Elena's expression, Claire realized that the human didn't get the answer she was waiting for. Claire sighed heavily before beginning again. "Look, my relationship with Damon is complicated, but Damon had nothing to do with me being angry at Delia. I'm just tired of pathetic women sauntering into my life looking for ways to destroy me."

Elena looked behind Claire, off at the bar, and was silent for a very long time before she titled her head up and noted, "So...that doesn't make you jealous?"

Claire looked behind her to find a young, blonde-brunette haired woman who stood beside Jenna Sommers being introduced to Damon at the bar with a glass of freshly poured bourbon in his hand. She felt terrible about it, but she couldn't help her oversensitive ears from hearing the young woman, whom she recognized from the television news, ask, "Can I buy you a drink, Damon?"

Though she knew it was wrong of her, Claire realized that Elena's question happened to be one that she didn't want to answer for fear of admitting the truth in the back of her head. Collecting herself, Claire turned back to the human expecting to find Elena standing across from her with a wide-eyed grin, triumphant over her win. Instead, Elena was gone, and Claire found the human distracted by some friends that she found a few paces away. Sighing, Claire walked over into Elena's earlier spot while downing her scotch and she caught sight of Damon giving the hopeful human an apologetic smile and walking away from her. Surprisingly, Claire found that he walked straight up to her instead.

She pulled her glass up to her lips and mumbled, "Wow. Way to blow a girl off."

"I'm steering clear of all women at the moment."

Claire couldn't help herself. She set her glass down and let a smile crawl up onto her lips as she joked, "What? Something wrong with..." She pointed downwards, indicating the punchline of her joke, and Damon watched her bite back a laugh as he shook his head at her.

"There's nothing wrong with _that _and you know it." She chuckled to herself and watched as Damon's face suddenly went serious. "I'm just taking a beat right now. Trust me, it's in the best interest of women everywhere."

She stared at him blankly. "Wait a minute, you're actually serious? Where is Damon Salvatore and what the hell have you done to him?"

After a moment, the corners of her lips turned up lightly and Damon took a sip out of his bourbon just as her phone rang. In the back of his mind, he looked at her and watched as she obliviously ignored the fact that he stood in front of her, his eyes focused on every single inch of her face with a painful look of love in his eyes that she would never understand unless he told her. Frustrated, Damon downed his entire glass and Claire answered her phone nonchalantly.

"What's up, Stef?" Damon turned his head at her and waited as she talked to Stefan. Her eyes lifted up to meet Damon's and she wore a genuinely concerned expression on her face. "_Damn _it! Okay. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Claire hung up the phone and slipped it back into her pocket all while Damon asked impatiently, "What happened?"

She grabbed his arm and pulled him with her to the back of the Grill where the bathrooms were, knowing it wasn't safe for him to completely explode in the middle of the town's memorial location. Once inside the restroom, she checked the stalls and made sure there was no one inside before turning to Damon with a exhausted look on her face.

"Promise you won't freak out."

"No." He widened his eyes. "Just tell me what's going on."

"Fine." She crossed her arms over her chest and started to pace. "So...here's the thing. Caroline told Tyler she was a vampire. Before you freak out, she told Stefan and Amelia and they gave her enough grief for it, okay? I only found out when Elijah released me from the tomb."

Damon growled, "And let me guess, werewolf boy took a chomp at Vampire Barbie?"

"No." Claire swallowed thickly. "Jules captured her because she wants Tyler unharmed. She figured Caroline was the best way to get that."

"Why am I just finding out about this now?"

"Because Stefan was worried that—"

"That what? That I would kill him?" Claire nodded with an obvious look in her eye. "Well, of course! That's what needs to happen."

"What's the point in killing Tyler?" Claire snapped at him as she stepped forward angrily. "Our focus right now has to be on Caroline. We have to get her out of there and _you _need to restrain yourself from killing 'werewolf boy', okay? He's a friend."

"He's a werewolf. He needs to die, I'm wiling to kill; it's a win-win—!"

"Damon!" Claire interrupted him, reaching forward to grip his shoulders tightly. He froze as she stepped closer impatiently and gave him one of the softest looks he'd ever seen her use. "Listen to me. Just this once, okay? She's my sire, and I need you to control yourself so we can get her back. Tyler has nothing to do with this."

Things were silent between them before Damon hissed, "You need to stop doing that."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Stop assuming that I'll play the good guy because it's _you _who's asking." His voice was cold and heartless and stepping back, she removed her hands from his shoulders realizing that she might've gone too far. She wasn't an idiot—she kissed Damon, he kissed her back, and he'd made it clear that he wanted it again. But she didn't think that he would perceive it as manipulating in such a drastic time. Her blue orbs met his coldly.

"I don't expect you to be the good guy, Damon." Her hands clenched into a fist as she stared at him hardly. "I just expect you to get your shit together and do what I say for once so we don't all die. Think you can handle that?"

Before he could respond, the door of the restroom burst open to reveal Elena walking through, interrupting the middle of the intense stare down. For a moment, she looked flushed for interrupting, but in the next she could see the urgency of the situation. After hesitating, deciding whether or not to walk out, Elena took a tentative step inside.

"What's going on?"

"Blondie's been kidnapped."

"Amelia?" Elena gasped.

"No." Claire sighed heavily. "Caroline. But we're handling it. Just stay here and make sure you stay alert just in case Jules decides to have a backup victim."

"Elena—" John followed Elena to the door of the bathroom and, once he was standing next to his daughter and observed the annoyed Claire and Damon inside of the restroom, he stopped and cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Elena bit at him.

"Doesn't look like nothing," he countered.

"Yeah, well guess what, John?" Damon snapped at him bitterly. "Trust works both ways. Get out."

"We don't have time for this." Claire brushed Damon's shoulder and moved towards the door. "We need to get Caroline back."

"I'm going with you," Elena called after them as Damon moved out of the door following Claire's pursuit. She tried to step forward but Damon sharply turned around and blocked her way.

"No, you're not. Claire and I will take care of it." He looked up at John. "First dad duty? Ground your daughter—keep her here."

"Damon—" As Damon and Claire both, without wasting another minute, fled the Grill, John blocked his daughter from leaving as if he had any parental rights over her at all.

* * *

Damon and Claire found Stefan, Amelia, and Tyler in the middle of the woods where Stefan said to meet them for the exchange Jules wanted. Jules stood across from them in a powerful stance, acting like she owned the world when, really, all she owned was the ratty trailer behind her. Claire and Damon could hear Stefan's persistent negotiations, and when they finally came out into view, Damon spoke first.

"My brother, the Peacemaker." He and Claire stepped up to Tyler's side. "Since Stefan and his girl got here before us, I'm gonna let them try this their way before I resort to _my _way...which is a little bloodier."

"Give us Caroline, Jules," Claire warned.

"Let go of Tyler."

"Give us Caroline," Damon groaned at her, looking up at the sky to note, "Without a full moon, it's not an even fight and you know it. We will take you."

Jules smirked. "I'm not so sure about that, tough guy."

She brought her fingers to her lips and whistled loudly through them, which caused all the vampires to look around and note every single one of the werewolves that came out from the trees. There had to be at least more than eight, each equipped with armory to kill a vampire. No matter who gave up who first, all of them knew that every single non-living person within twenty feet would die. Jules cocked her head at them.

"Let's try this again. Give us Tyler."

"You heard her. Go," Damon hissed softly at the werewolf. Stefan reluctantly let go of Tyler and watched as he walked to Jules's side safely. As the four vampires expected, no one moved an inch to get their friend from inside the trailer, where she was presumably being kept. One of the werewolves beside Jules was the first to speak.

"Which one of you killed Mason?"

"Uh, that'd be me," Damon announced. Claire turned her head at him.

"Damon, what are you doing?"

"Relax," he assured her cockily. "They won't be able to kill us."

"Boys!" the werewolf shouted at those surrounding them before pointing his stake at Damon. "Make sure that one suffers."

Damon swallowed. "We can take them."

Stefan inhaled sharply. "I don't know about that."

Claire hissed beside her, "You're a fucking idiot, Damon."

Amelia gulped and looked around her nervously. "Anyone else doubting the history of vampires right about now? Because I certainly am."

Right after she said the words, Damon was the first to initiate the fight. He lunged at Jules, causing each of the werewolves to attack their own vampire. Claire, Stefan, and Amelia were all separated as they were attacked from all angles by way of fire or wooden stakes in their enemy's hand. Claire didn't stop to blink before hitting or kicking the crap out of the men who attacked her, ripping their hearts from their chests or using the stakes they wielded against her to kill them, instead. But there were too many on her and she realized quickly that her friends around her were also losing gradually. Stefan was staked in the back, Amelia had a werewolf come up behind her while she used a supplied flamethrower to warn off her enemies, and said stealthy werewolf managed to get her to drop the tank to the ground and began to fight with an equal match. Damon was shot in the chest by Jules with a wooden bullet gun and even Claire, herself, who watched as Caroline came out of the trailer covered in her own blood was pinned up against the metal frame of the mobile home by Jules with the bullet gun to her back, was unable to help because of her own attackers—two men who had her down on the floor and one who was just about to rip out her own heart. Right as she struggled to kick, the werewolves restraining her suddenly started to scream, backing away and clutching their heads in pain.

Claire, confused, sat up straight and watched as all the werewolves dropped around her. Instead of dwelling, she spotted Caroline and flashed over to the blonde vampire to make sure she was okay. Caroline turned to her with a shake of her head.

"What's happening?" Caroline asked. Claire looked at the scene, all of the werewolves writhing in pain on the ground from a seemingly invisible problem.

"I-I don't know."

"What the hell's going on?" Tyler murmured. From the shadows of the trees, Claire, Damon, Stefan, Amelia, Tyler, and Caroline watched as a witch came out with his hands pointed down and his eyes focused on the magic he exerted. He looked up at them all once the werewolves were all down.

"Elijah made a promise to Elena," the witch said. "I'm here to see it's upheld. You need to go. Get out of here. Now."

And, though all the vampires were confused out of their own minds, they all heeded the advice and fled.

* * *

Claire walked up with Caroline to the front door of her home, trying to be as quiet as she could. Caroline looked both physically and mentally drained, and she knew what kind of a toll it could have on a person to be locked up and tortured.

"Is your mom home?" Claire asked softly.

Caroline shook her head. "No. She's at work."

"Do you want me to come in?" She tried not to push, but it wasn't really working. "I can make some tea for you. Maybe spike it with a little vodka? That always seems to do the trick for me—"

"Claire, I'm fine." Caroline unlocked her door and turned around at her with a soft smile. But Claire didn't believe her, she just saw the look on Caroline's face and knew that it was all wrong. She leaned against the threshold and bit down on her lip.

"Caroline, you don't need to pretend that you're okay." She nodded quietly. "It's all right to feel a little pain or...or anger, especially after what happened to you tonight. Trust me, I've been there. That fear that you'll never be okay, even though you know you're fine now, it's not a good feeling."

The younger vampire swallowed thickly. "I'm okay, really. I'm not...I'm not the Caroline that I used to be before, I can handle myself."

"I know." Claire smiled at her. "My blood made you. Regardless of the fact that it's a King's blood and everything, no sire of mine will ever be weak. And you handled yourself the best you could today."

"Could I have gotten out?" Caroline asked in a low voice. Claire raised an eyebrow at her. "If your blood is supposed to be the strongest...if I'm supposed to stem from that blood, does that mean that I could've gotten out tonight? Before you, Stefan, Amelia, and Damon came to get me from Jules?"

The blonde shook her head. "I have no idea. I'm not all that clear on how it works and I don't think I'll ever be clear on it. All I know is that we're supposed to be able to fight at a level one hundred times our age." She paused with a small grin. "Give or take a few years."

Caroline laughed for a moment, but it came out pained. Claire felt immediately unsettled, but Caroline didn't give her a chance to push further. "All right, well I just...really want to go shower, so...good night."

Claire was reluctant, but inevitably nodded. "Okay. Good night."

But there was something still shaking her. She knew Caroline wasn't okay—she could just feel it within her, like a mother with a child. Caroline was clearly not her child, but in every vampire aspect, she really was. She thought of her that way, anyway, and she felt extremely bad for not being around Caroline more often. She wanted to be there, but with everything going on between the wolves and John Gilbert and Klaus, she couldn't find the time. But one thing was for sure; she wouldn't let Caroline be alone. Not after what had happened to her.

Claire turned up at the Gilbert house, where she came to the back door instead of the front sensing that Elena was in the kitchen with John Gilbert. She waited until John had gone away from the kitchen, giving the two of them the time that they needed before knocking on the door and earning the doppelgänger's attention. Elena turned around, wiped a few stray tears out of her eyes, and walked up to the door and opened it with a relieved smile.

"Claire. Good, you're okay. Is Caroline...?"

"She's fine. Well, relatively speaking." Claire looked down at the piece of jewelry in Elena's hand. "What's that?"

"Oh..." Elena turned back into the kitchen, almost as if reliving the conversation, but then she turned her eyes back to Claire and sighed. "Did you hear?"

"Yeah. I just thought I'd be polite about it."

"I don't believe him," Elena insisted in a hard voice, shaking her head.

"That's okay," Claire admitted softly. "I don't believe him, either. The guy set a building on fire and nearly burnt me and Damon to a crisp. I'll never trust him. But...that's because he's not my father. Biologically speaking, anyways."

"I know I should trust him," the teenager mumbled under her breath. "But I don't."

Claire shook her head. "You know, we have far more pressing issues than John Gilbert anyways. Believe me, my sister and my best friend are never going to hear the end of it. But I need your help."

"With what?"

The blonde took in a deep breath. "Caroline."

A while later, after Elena and Bonnie had packed what they needed to and the three girls went over to Caroline's house, Claire walked up to her front doorstep alone and knocked on the door. Caroline emerged from her bedroom, seen through the door window, dressed in a black robe with her hair wet from the shower she'd said she'd take. As Caroline walked to the door, Claire smiled and waited patiently.

"Hey," Caroline greeted her. Claire did as well with a soft voice. She could hear the sniffles in Caroline's and knew that she was doing the right thing. "What's going on?"

"I was worried." Claire threw her hands up warmly. "I can't help it, I'm a worrier. Most of the time."

"I'm fine," Caroline insisted with an uncertain laugh. Claire shrugged, and she knew how it felt to not want to admit her pain, and so she nodded.

"All right. Well, that's good. But just in case there's that one percent chance that you're not, I brought you something." Claire turned around and waited as Caroline watched Elena and Bonnie come up on her front step and step into her house. Elena nodded slowly.

"We're gonna slumber it."

"We haven't done it in ages," Bonnie added. Caroline began to cry, softly but surely, and gave a grateful look to her two friends before they pulled her into a group hug with Caroline in between them. Elena lifted her head from the hug and watched Claire on the porch step smiling at the three of them.

"You want to join us, Claire?" Elena asked quietly. Caroline lifted her head as well hopefully, but an invitation wasn't Claire's intention. She shook her head politely.

"I've got to get home. Feed a little. Damon took my breakfast this morning." She looked at all of them with sweet eyes. "Have a good night, you three. Stay out of trouble."

"No promises," Caroline laughed through her half-sobs and watched as Claire walked off the porch and into the night, leaving the three teenagers in the middle of Caroline's foyer still embraced in a hug.

* * *

"I can't believe you called me." Andie Star scoffed as she felt Damon's wet lips on her skin. The two sat in his bathtub, covered in heaps of bubbles from their combined bubble bath. His lips kissed her neck and sensually found her earlobe, where he could feel her shudder as he nibbled at it. "I thought I was being _way _too forward when I had Jenna give you my number."

"I like a woman who knows what she wants," Damon confessed. Andie smiled.

"Mm. Thank you." He smirked. "So what do you want, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome?"

"I'm not that tall." His eyes widened teasingly. Andie chuckled at him and he kissed her cheek before leaning back in the bath, the water shifting under his naked body in which every exposed body part was covered in bubbles. He sighed. "I need a distraction."

"You can booty call me any time you want."

Damon leaned out of the tub and grabbed the glass of wine he set on his bathroom floor. "See, the thing is, Miss...Sexy-Reporter-Girl, I have a problem I need help with. It's really messing with my mind."

Her lips turned down, trying to feel bad for him. "Oh. Tell me about it."

He was silent for a long time and eventually, his blue eyes snapped up to meet hers and he threw his hand up frustratedly. "I'm in love with a woman I can never have. The saddest part about it is that I did have her...a _long, _long time ago. But I lost her and now...now, I'm afraid I'm going to do the exact same thing."

Andie frowned, this time feeling bad for herself. She reached forward and grabbed the wine glass from his hand. "I knew it. I know how to pick 'em. So why can't you have her? She's with another man, I assume?"

"No, actually, she's divorced now." Damon paused. "Well, not technically. Whatever, it was this whole big thing but...that's not the point." He leaned forward and stole the glass back from her and rambled, "The point is that I'm in love with her and it's driving me crazy. I'm not in control."

"What, you don't trust yourself around her?"

"I don't trust myself around anyone, Andie, but the difference is...if I let it slip that I'm in love with her, she'll run. She'll run like a bat out of hell and I know it."

"Why?"

"Because..." Damon trailed off, but he didn't really know the reason. He shrugged. "I don't know why. But she will. And because I can't tell her, I'm...I'm losing my mind. I'm bad, Andie. I do things."

"Ooh," she joked.

"I kill people." The words were cold and emotionless, and the second they were out and Andie realized he was serious, he saw the smile drop from her face almost as if on a timer. Realizing that she was about to scream, run, or do something he wouldn't like, he reached forward and grabbed her shoulder, watching her shift fearfully. His eyes captured her own and he compelled her. "Don't be afraid. You're okay."

Relaxing, Damon leaned against the back of the bathtub. Andie, the fear now drained from her eyes, asked in a small voice, "Why do you kill people?"

"Because I like it," Damon told her simply. "It's in my nature, it's who I am. But then I have to stay together to pretend like I actually _want _to fight with her and she wants me to be the hero which means _I_ can't be who _I_ am. Do you see the problem I'm having, Andie?"

Andie's features softened. "Well, maybe this is who you are now. Love does that, Damon. It changes us."

He thought about it for a moment, but even a moment was too long. He couldn't take it, thinking about Claire, because if he thought about her, he'd want to give into the bad side of him telling him that he should take what he wanted and suffer the consequences. But the rational part within him knew that it would be the worst thing possible. She wasn't ready. He wasn't ready. He didn't want to ruin it again.

So he leaned forward with an exhausted expression. "Just stop talking. Just kiss me. Be my distraction."

And he kissed her, finding that she was equally as enthusiastic about it as he was, and he tried to let thoughts of Clarissa King out of his head. His lips slid to her neck and he thought, for just a moment, that he could withstand the temptation and not bite her. But that split moment was gone and he realized that he believed he wasn't the hero. He couldn't be the hero, he never had been one. Claire was wrong.

So he drew his fangs, bit into her neck, and reveled in the sweet taste of the rich human blood as it dripped down Andie's shoulder and soaked the bathwater until it turned blood red.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Sorry this chapter took me extremely long to get out, I've been having some issues with writing this story lately. But I'm sure I will be able to get the chapter out sometime soon. Please review!**

* * *

**NicoleR85: **Thank you. Here's the update. Again, apologies for it being so late.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Yeah he definitely has that effect on people! Thanks for reviewing!

**grapejuice101: **There will be TONS of more drama for Claire and Damon starting from 2x16. I'm excited but first I need to get over these next two episodes to get there. Soooo much fun. Anywho, thanks for reviewing!

**Tvd2014: **Yeah, I figured it would sort of be really tragic which was what I was going for because I didn't want Rose and Delia to go out of the story without a tragic ending. Their characters really deserved a dramatic ending, which was carried out well in the show but I figured I would do something to the extreme. Yeah, Claire following Damon around is always fun...maybe not for him, but I'm sure it is for her! She loves to annoy the crap out of him, I think it's become a sport. You can definitely see how much Claire actually cares about Damon and he's sort of oblivious to it because he's kind of got this idea of "the last time I told her I loved her she never talked to me again" in his head so he's not really willing to think about the "if" she will actually end up being reasonable about it this time. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

**RHatch89: **Thank you :)

**klandgraf2007: **Thanks! Here's the update sorry for the wait on it!


	28. Crying Wolf

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Crying Wolf**

As Claire poured herself her breakfast glass of blood, she held her phone to her ear and waited as the tone rang, waiting for Elena to pick up on the other end. It took all of three rings, where Claire had managed to pour a full glass of rich red liquid and put the bag she had poured it out of to the side.

_"Hello?" _Elena answered groggily. Claire was just about to pull the glass from her lips to speak when she could hear Caroline and Bonnie whine from the background, "_Elena...!" _

Claire smiled. "Late night?"

Elena's response was a bit delayed, but she laughed as much as she could for having been clearly woken up from her slumber. _"Yes. But it was worth it. Thanks for this, Claire." _

The blonde shrugged. "Don't mention it. How is Caroline doing?"

_"She's doing fine. Well, as fine as she can be." _Elena let out a deep, heavy sigh that made Claire instantly suspicious. With lips pursed and eyebrows knotted, she took in a sharp inhale.

"And...how are _you _doing, Elena?"

_"Me? Oh, I'm fine...I'm fine..." _Claire stayed silent and listened to the sound of Elena's forced breathing before the human groaned and admitted, _"Okay. I'm not so fine. I just really could use a break from all this." _

Claire downed the blood on her glass and moved to pour some bourbon into it instead. Holding her phone between her shoulder and her ear while getting alcohol for herself, she continued. "What is that supposed to mean?"

_"It means that..." _Elena swallowed. _"It means that last night, one of my vampire best friends almost got killed by a pack of werewolves. It means that for the past few weeks, I've been trying to figure out a way to protect everyone that I love from some evil Original vampire who's going to come to Mystic Falls to kill me in some sacrifice." _She paused. _"I could use a vacation far...far away from Mystic Falls." _

Claire chuckled and grabbed the phone with her hand again. "Right. And this sudden urge to leave town has absolutely nothing to do with dodging John Gilbert?"

_"Uh...this has everything to do with that." _As she drank her bourbon, Claire smiled to herself and listened to Elena in the phone with a needy tone. _"Come on, Claire. You and I could both use a vacation away from Mystic Falls. I mean, I could certainly...deal with some time away from Stefan and you...well, you could use some time away from_—"

"Elena, I'm gonna have to call you back. Damon!" Claire snapped as she hung up the phone and saw Damon walk out from the hallway with a woman in front of him—the woman who had been flirting with him the previous day at the Grill before they found out about Caroline. For a moment, she was genuinely surprised that there was another person in the household since Stefan was at Amelia's and Damon was supposed to be alone, for she had heard nothing when she had gotten home the night before. Damon turned to her with disinterested eyes but a loose smile, and the woman looked over at her with confusion. She walked over to the two at the threshold of the foyer and eyed the scarf around the woman's neck. "That's my scarf!"

The woman looked down at it with a huff. "It's a very nice scarf."

Damon smiled at Claire. "Relax, sugar. Couldn't have Andie going back to work with a bunch of holes in her neck, now, could I? After all, she is on the live television."

With a humble look, Andie's eyes moved from the disgusted Claire to the relaxed Damon, where she smiled at him and said, "Okay, well I've got to get to work now."

"Okay." Damon leaned forward and kissed her, unintentionally causing Claire to turn her head and shift awkwardly as Damon walked her to the door. "Have a great day, honey."

Andie walked out onto the porch, where she headed out into the morning sunlight and Damon shut the front door of the boarding house and turned around at Claire, who was waiting. He smiled.

"My new girlfriend," he started. "Andie Starr, 'Action News'."

"Mystic Falls doesn't have an 'Action News', Damon," Claire bit at him. He shrugged. "If it did, it would only be because we didn't cover our tracks and word of a thousand vampire attacks were leaked." Brushing past her, he walked into the foyer to pour himself a drink while Claire turned around at him, confused, "Besides, when did you start having girlfriends?"

"Since...now." Damon scoffed. "And where were you last night?"

She decided it wasn't worth it; there was no point in talking to Damon about his sex life because a) she didn't want to know and b) she was determined to prove everyone wrong—she didn't care who or what Damon Salvatore slept with. Though it killed her not to use that built-up temper inside of her, she brushed past what had just happened and sighed.

"I set up a sleepover for Caroline, Elena, and Bonnie and then I went over to Amelia's so I could help Stefan. What happened in the woods really screwed with his strength," Claire explained. Damon turned around at her with the glass of bourbon in his hands but a more serious look on his face.

"You really think this whole 'Taming of the Stefan' plan of yours is working?" Damon asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. She nodded.

"I think it's...definitely helping."

"And what happens when he feeds on more than what you've allotted him?" the dark-haired Salvatore proposed darkly, stepping forward. Claire didn't flinch. "What happens when he loses his balance on this very..._tight _rope you're having him walk on? What happens then, huh?"

"I can handle it," she chided. Damon gave her a look of disbelief. Feeling vindictive, she snapped, "Unlike his brother."

Before Damon could get a chance to snap back at her, the bell on the door chimed, and both Damon and Claire were standing in the middle of the foyer in an intense stare down as they waited for someone to break the contest and for someone to be a winner. Eventually, Claire broke the contact and stormed over to the front door of the house, where Alaric was standing on the porch awkwardly, waiting to be invited in. Seeing Claire, he opened his mouth to speak a greeting, but she just gave him a sour smile.

"Damon's in the foyer," she told him and, leaving the front door open, walked out of the house and into the daylight. She could see Alaric's confusion but she didn't pay any mind to it as she moved to the driveway of the boarding house and climbed into her car while dialing Elena's number again. This time, Elena answered on the second ring, less groggy this time.

_"Hey, Claire_—"

"A vacation sounds pretty good right now," Claire cut her off as she started the car and the bluetooth came on over the speakers. Elena's words were stuttered, but that wasn't a result of the bluetooth.

_"R-Really? O...Okay, sure! When can we leave?" _

"I can pick you up from your house in an hour."

* * *

"So what made you change your mind?" Elena asked as she brought down a bag from upstairs that she packed. Claire, however, decided to go get some new clothes instead of stepping back into the Salvatore house, so in the car that awaited their girl's weekend were a bunch of shopping bags from the mall a little ways out of town. Claire shrugged.

"I'm a big believer in charity," she quipped. Elena laughed.

"Okay, then. We should go before John shows up and pretends to be a concerned father." Right as Claire scoffed and the two of them moved to walk outside of the Gilbert house, Elena's phone buzzed in her pocket, making her stop in the middle of the foyer. Claire watched her expression as Elena read the text message on her phone from Caroline.

**Need to talk. Where are you? **

Elena quickly typed a response back, at a stand still until she was able to figure out what was wrong.

**Headed to lake house w Claire. U ok? **

"Please don't tell me there's an apocalypse." Claire groaned. "Because it's not even eleven o'clock in the morning and I could really, _really _use a day off."

Elena looked up at Claire with a small smile before she felt her phone buzz in her hand and looked down to see that it was Caroline's response.

**All good, never mind. Have fun.**

"Just Caroline." Elena hurriedly typed a final message as Claire raised her eyebrow, waiting for Elena to tell her what was going on. The brunette shook her head. "Don't worry, she's fine. Let's go before there's an _actual _apocalypse."

"I wouldn't put it past Mystic Falls," Claire confessed under her breath as she and Elena walked out of the house and to her car.

It took them about an hour to get to Elena's family's lake house, a cabin that was secluded far in the woods away so that no one can disturb them. Claire opened her car door and stepped outside, breathing in the fall air with a smile on her face. She listened as Elena climbed out of the car, but her steps were less enthusiastic as Claire's were. As she and Elena both rounded the hood of the car, Claire noticed Elena's face and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm good. I just...haven't been back here since before..." Elena trailed off, staring at the lake house in nostalgia. Claire racked her brain and looked over at the lake house for any indication to what Elena was referring, and then she realized.

"Oh, shit." Claire moved forward to the doppelgänger, who stared at the lake house without a word. "Elena, I didn't even realize. Hey, maybe we should go back. You know, we can drive to Atlantic City or something! I can get us the best room in one of the best hotels, I promise. We don't have to be here."

Elena shook her head and smiled. "No. I've always loved it here. I want it to stay that way, I was just...having a moment."

But Claire was reluctant. "Are you sure? Because I could _definitely_ go for a casino right now."

Elena laughed at her friend and just went to grab her bag from the back of Claire's SUV. She grabbed her one duffel and Claire carried all of her shopping bags in her hands without any effort at all, walking up to the lake house trailing behind Elena as if she were carrying pillows when, truth be told, there was more than just a 'few' outfits in the shopping bags she'd treated herself to. Elena opened the door and set her bag on the counter, but Claire was stuck at the threshold. She sighed and Elena looked back at the door.

"You don't have to wait out there. I'm all good."

"Well, that's great, but I'm..." Claire tried to push her hand against the threshold but she wasn't able to let her fingers cross the opening. Elena turned at her with wide eyes and Claire just chuckled. "It's gonna be a little hard to get to the tequila from all the way out here. I mean, I'm sure we can figure something out, but..."

"Oh, my God," Elena breathed. "You can't...get in."

"Yes, we've established that. Can you invite me inside now?"

"Claire, I can't. My parents left this place to John Gilbert. He's the only one who can invite you in. I-I'm sorry...I _completely _forgot."

"That bastard ruins all my plans!" Claire groaned, frustrated. By the time she looked back at Elena, a few seconds had passed, and Elena's solemn and apologetic look from before turned into a wide grin. Claire's frustrated look dropped and she knotted her eyebrows. "Oh, my God, you're completely screwing with me, aren't you?"

Elena laughed. "And I'm sure you thought you're the only one here who could screw with people and get away with it. Come in, Claire."

Claire stepped through the threshold and shut the door behind her as Elena couldn't stop laughing. She had to admit that it was funny, and so she laughed a few times before countering, "Well, even if John Gilbert _was _the only one who could invite me in, I would've had no problem doing shots from a bar on the boardwalk."

"I'm sure you wouldn't have," said Elena through her chuckles. Claire set her bags down by the stairs leading to the second level of the lake house and, with a determined sigh, turned to Elena.

"Okay," she began. "Time to establish 'Girls' Weekend' rules."

The doppelgänger frowned. "There are rules?"

"Fun rules," Claire amended, giving Elena a slick smile before walking to the kitchen, which was around the corner from the front door. The liquor cabinet, it seemed, was less than ten feet away. As she explained to Elena the rules of their fun weekend, she bent and threw the lock on the liquor cabinet away so she could have a free choice. "No talk about Klaus, no talk about Elijah, no talk about Damon—"

"Or Stefan," Elena added pointedly. Claire turned over her shoulder with a cocked eyebrow, but then she remembered.

"Right. Sometimes I forget that my best friend and my sister decided to play house together." Claire rolled her eyes, and the statement, though harmless, made Elena shift uncomfortably from her position on the couch. "So no talk about Salvatore brothers, Klaus, Elijah, my sister..."

"That doesn't leave much topic for conversation," Elena mumbled under her breath. Claire turned around with two bottles of alcohol in each hand and a small smile.

"That's where these babies come in."

* * *

It didn't take long for Elena to get drunk over her face; though she moved at half the pace that Claire did with her shots. So by the time Elena was absolutely plastered, Claire was as hammered as she could be for her state of being—and though she knew it would wear off and was particularly aware of what was going on, unlike the human, she just let herself have fun for once. They had only spent two hours at the cabin before they were both outside on the dock, their jeans rolled up and their feet floating around in the water. Between Claire and Elena there were two shot glasses and an extra large bottle of Grey Goose vodka.

Claire tilted her head back, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and Elena looked around for a moment before she blurted out, "You know, Jeremy broke his arm diving off this dock when he was six."

"Klutz," Claire chuckled.

"My dad taught me how to fish right off this edge," Elena mumbled in nostalgia. "So many memories."

Claire nodded to herself, her eyes closed as she basked in the sunlight, but still acutely aware of Elena's words. "Ah...memories. Sometimes I think there will come a day when my head will reach full capacity and I won't be able to remember any more of them."

"What was it like?" Elena asked suddenly, causing Claire to open her eyes at last and stare at her over the setting sun. She then clarified, "When you realized that everything you thought you wanted to be your future had just...changed in one instant?"

Claire straightened, pouring herself and Elena another round. Confused, she asked, "What, you mean, like...when I realized that I would never get to grow old and die?"

"Somewhat like that."

Claire knocked back the shot she had poured and Elena just watched, neglecting the one that Claire had kindly and presumptuously offered to her. When Claire was done downing the alcohol, she let out a sigh and set the shot glass back down on the dock before looking to Elena with narrowed eyes. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she leaned closer to Elena. "You want the truth?"

"No, Claire, I want a lie." Elena laughed, slightly pouting while shaking her head at her own joke. Claire rolled her eyes.

"Clever. But seriously?" She turned and looked out into the open water. "I was relieved." She turned back at Elena, who had just started to swallow the shot she had queued up, but upon hearing the confession, Elena lowered the glass with widened eyes. Claire nodded slowly. "I know, I know. I make such a big deal about that bitch doppelgänger of your ruining my life when...the first thing I thought when I let it sink in that I was going to alive forever was...'thank God'."

Elena swallowed thickly. "Why?"

Claire shrugged. "Since I was a teenager, I was always worried about growing old and dying. Girls like me can't stay beautiful forever." She shot Elena a confident smile, but just moved on by pouring another shot. "When I realized I wouldn't have to grow old...wouldn't have to suffer through the humiliation of being helpless and wrinkled, I was relieved. It's a very vain thing to admit but...it's the truth."

The human sighed. "I don't think it's all that vain. There's nothing wrong with wanting to stay young forever."

Claire nodded slowly. "Yeah...yeah, but once I realized the price that I had to pay, that's when I started to hate Katherine for what she did. And as for my future...well, the future is different every day for me now."

Both girls were quiet for a very long time, listening to the sound of the water on their feet and the birds chirping above them. It stayed that way for a long time until Elena, half-drunk and bothered, decided to break one of the rules.

"I used to think about my future with Stefan all the time."

"I thought we agreed we wouldn't talk about him."

"I lied." Elena knocked back her shot that she hadn't finished and Claire snickered to herself watching the human as she winced at the burn and slammed the glass back down on the wooden dock. Elena wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and continued. "We never really had conversations about it, but I don't know what I ever expected from him. Your future and my future...they're bound to be different. I guess he realized that sooner than I did."

She mumbled the last part sourly, hoping Claire hadn't heard it, but Claire was hardly one to get angry at Elena for something that she could look at objectively. There was only one person in the world that she would get mad at for any reason, but that wasn't Elena.

"Stefan loved you," Claire assured Elena, capturing her attention. "I mean...if I know anything about him, my guess is that he still loves you. There's just...there's just some unfinished business he has with my sister. He feels like he owes it to himself, to her, _and _to you to see if he truly still feels that way."

Again, things fell silent, this time for a shorter duration than it was before. Elena hesitated her question, but at last, she found the courage to sigh heavily and begin. "Well, we already broke one rule so..."

Claire groaned. "Ugh! Elena, leave it alone!"

"I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I don't know the reason you came on this getaway with me," Elena defended herself, her tone going more high-pitched than usual, a fault of the alcohol she was nursing. Claire tried to look disinterested, but she was forced to listen to Elena. "Why can't you admit that him being with someone else bothered you?"

"Because I don't have a right to be bothered by it," Claire explained with a small shrug as she poured another shot for herself and downed it all in one take. "Damon is free to date whomever he wants whenever he wants. I have no right to say anything about it, even if it does happen to be with _Andie Starr._"

Elena paused. "Wait, I thought we were talking about Delia."

Claire snorted and rolled her eyes again. "You missed the memo, cupcake. Damon's found himself a new friend with benefits. A human one. Andie Starr, 'Action News'."

"Mystic Falls doesn't have an 'Action News'..."

"Exactly." Elena knotted her eyebrows at Claire's pointed response, but after a while, Claire continued with a small laugh. "You know, I find it extremely _weird _how you keep trying to fit your way into the middle of this. What did Damon call it before? Going around town with your pom-poms cheering 'Damon and Claire! Damon and Claire!'" Elena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"I just see what you don't," the girl countered, almost condescendingly. Claire tried to ignore her as she poured herself another shot, rendering the bottle empty. "With you, Damon tries to be a better man. He tries to be good so he feels that he deserves you."

The young blonde thought about it for a moment. Maybe Elena was right. Maybe Elena was wrong. But one thing for sure was that she did not drive an three hours out of town so that she could talk about the very person she was trying to get away from.

After swallowing back the shot and standing to her feet, Claire replied, "No one deserves me, Elena. I'm too awesome."

"Sure." Elena scoffed, and for a moment, she was silent looking down at the water, but then she looked up at Claire over the rays of the sun and blurted out, "You know what? I never realized it before but this water is _reallyyyyy _cold."

"Then get out of it!" Claire snickered, and keeping her movements both graceful and clumsy, Elena pulled her feet out of the water and kicked them free of the cold, numb feeling she had in her legs that somehow she found cause for laughter. Claire helped her up to her feet and laughed as well, but over their good time, there was a voice.

"Claire!"

Elena and Claire both looked up to see Stefan and Amelia paused a few feet away from them at the dock, both of them with furious looks on their faces. Elena huffed, clearly irritated, and Claire let out a heavy exhale.

"And here comes the fun police." She reached down and grabbed the empty bottle of vodka on the deck, but she put it to her mouth and drained every last drop that she could possibly get from the bottom of the container as she watched her sister and her best friend stare at both her and Elena with no limit to their judgements.

* * *

"I can't believe you two!" Stefan scolded Claire as he stood before the shameful Elena wrapped in a blanket and the exhausted Claire who were perched on the couch, dreadfully listening to his reprimanding. Stefan looked back and forth, more pointedly towards his best friend. "Especially you, Claire! You know better! Elena has a target on her back and so do you, for that matter! It's not safe out here!"

"The cabin is by invitation only," Claire defended herself, gesturing towards Stefan and Amelia. "I mean...if we wanted to, we could've locked both of you out!"

"Something tells me that Elijah guy has the rest of eternity on his hands to wait you out," Amelia confessed softly as she stood at Stefan's side. Elena groaned.

"Elijah's not the issue here! I made a deal with him and he said he'd honor it." She snorted. "And from what I hear, he did honor it when he had his witches save you all from those werewolves."

"I don't trust Elijah," Stefan continued. His eyes settled on Claire. "And you know that. You didn't even tell anyone you were leaving!"

"Not true," Claire pointed out and gestured towards Elena. "Elena texted Caroline before she left. I figured you would get the information from her somehow. Hopefully, by then, we would've already had as much fun as I wanted to have this weekend."

"Did you?" Amelia asked, genuinely curious. Claire shrugged.

"I mean, I can drink Elena under the table...but that was an obvious given—"

"Claire," Stefan cut her off, causing the blonde to stop mid-sentence. He softened his voice. "You should've told me."

She muttered her reply. "Sorry."

"You know what?" Elena tossed her blanket over her body and angrily stood up. Her heated gaze was pointed towards Stefan as she snapped bitterly, "The fire's dying. I'm going to get some more wood."

Stefan could see the anger in Elena's eyes, and with a sigh, he turned to her and said, "Elena, it's cold outside."

"So I'll get a jacket!" she snapped and stormed off. Amelia and Stefan shared a glance for a moment before Amelia nodded at him assuringly, and Stefan immediately went after Elena in her footsteps, leaving Claire and Amelia alone in the living room. They were quiet for some time before Claire looked up at Amelia with her head in her hand and narrowed her eyes at her sister, who clearly had something on her mind.

"You were offended I didn't ask you to come with us, weren't you?" Claire asked, reading her sister like a book.

Amelia hesitated, but eventually confessed, "Yeah. Pretty much."

"Elena!" Stefan called after the doppelgänger as she walked into her parents' bedroom to grab a jacket. Elena was moving far too briskly, and though Stefan could've cheated with vampire speed, he decided not to. "Elena! Elena, just wait!"

"You have absolutely no right to be storming in here concerned about my safety," Elena mumbled to him over her shoulder. "I can handle myself."

"No," Stefan countered as they came to a slow when she opened her parents' closet and pulled off a jacket from the rack on the door. "Elena, you can't! You're not strong enough."

"But Claire is!" Elena whipped around at him fast, despite the headache she felt from her recovering hangover. Stefan waited for her to finish. "You know Claire can protect me. She can protect herself, too. There was no reason for you to come all the way out here just so that you can yell at us for having some fun!"

"Elena—"

"I don't want to hear it, Stefan."

"Elena, how many times do I have to tell you that no matter the circumstances, I don't want you dead?" He moved closer to her, but Elena stepped back, backing herself into the closet. Stefan inched forward as she shook her head. "Elena...Elena..."

"No. No!" Elena was on the verge of throwing a punch at him in the midst of her drunken fit, but Stefan reached out and grabbed her hand gently and brought it down to her side. No matter how hard Elena pushed at him, he kept a light grip on her wrist and was careful not to hurt her as she backed herself up against the wall of the closet with a loud thud. Feeling trapped, Elena struggled while groaning out protests, but as she did, Stefan could hear something concerning.

"Elena. Elena, stop!" Stefan shouted over her protests. Elena silenced, her fit becoming distant as his hand released hers and she uncomfortably stepped out of the way as Stefan looked at the wall Elena had been pressed against with confusion. He knocked on it, and Elena stared at him with raised eyebrows.

"Stefan, what are you doing?"

"This is hollow inside," he muttered. She watched him as he broke apart the boards to the wall and set them aside, revealing a door hidden inside the wall of her parents' closet. Elena swallowed, realizing something wasn't right.

"What is it?"

"A really good hiding place." He broke the lock on the door and pushed it open, where he stepped inside and switched on the light inside of the closet to see what was inside. Elena peered behind his shoulder and when she looked at what was there, she nearly fainted.

"Oh, my God," Elena mumbled as she observed the dozens of vampire-hunting weapons that hung on the walls in the secret room. Stefan stood, speechless, and Elena pushed past him to walk into the closet that she never knew existed. She hunted around for a moment, surprised at what she was seeing, but she hesitated whens he found a few leather-bound books on one of the shelves to the right of the door. "These must be the other John Gilbert journals. Jeremy had the one, but John said that there were others. His whole life's in here."

Stefan cleared his throat. "You know...I'll...I'll go get the firewood. Let you have a moment."

Elena didn't answer him, but she bent down and grabbed a handful of wooden bullets that were stocked at the bottom of the closet. And as she observed the side of her family that she was unaware of, most of her earlier drunkenness started to fade.

While Stefan was getting the firewood and Elena was having a moment with her past, Amelia and Claire decided to go back out onto the dock to get away from the fighting that they heard from Stefan and Elena in Elena's parents' bedroom, opting not to get into the middle of it. By that time, Claire was over the buzz she felt from the alcohol and was somewhat alert to what she was doing, as opposed to before.

"So..." Amelia began quietly. "You've really been hitting it hard with the drinks, haven't you, Claire?"

Claire grimaced. "Don't you start, Amelia. I'm a vampire, I can't die of liver failure like the Average Joe."

"I know you can't. But that doesn't mean it's not unhealthy that you're getting drunk every time you can." Amelia pulled them both to a stop in the middle of the dock, aware of her sister's annoyed face. "Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Claire shrugged. "I like to drink alcohol. I'm sorry, is it a crime? I know I'm of age. You, however, are underage and you have no problem drinking all that bourbon at the Salvatore house."

"Claire!" Her sister groaned, frustrated at the attempt to try and make Claire listen to her, which was clearly not happening. Amelia decided to come out and plainly ask, "Does this have something to do with Damon?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?!"

"Because it makes sense," Amelia countered. Claire buried her head in her hands and let out a tired groan to herself. Amelia waited for Claire to speak, but when she didn't, she tried, "Okay...well if it isn't about D—"

"Don't."

"Then what is it about?" she finished. Claire wanted to respond, but the truth was, there was no one thing that her drinking was limited to. She just hadn't felt like herself of late and it was wearing her down. But how could she even begin to put that into words?

She tried her best to, regardless of how it sounded.

"It started to be about Christopher," she admitted, turning away from Amelia to walk to the edge of the dock. Amelia followed her, but kept a fair distance. "And then...then this whole thing with Elijah happened. Then, Delia came back into my life, intent on making it a living hell. After that, I got trapped in a tomb with my worst enemy who made some valid points that I really don't want to admit are valid but...they are. And on top of everything that's happened, I just...I just can't seem to put all the pieces together. Maybe I don't want to." She glanced up at her sister. "But that's not a bad thing."

Amelia chuckled. "Yeah, unless you end up with a BAC most humans would die from."

"I just want one day," Claire decided firmly. "One day where it isn't all about doom and gloom. Is that too much—?"

Before she could finish asking the question, the universe answered for her. Out of nowhere, Claire and Amelia were both shoved into the water, falling face-first. When they came up for air, the two of them merely were allotted a split second to breathe before two hands came to both of their heads and shoved them underneath the water, holding them down for as long as it took to temporarily kill both vampires.

* * *

When Amelia and Claire had finally resurfaced in the water, gasping to life from their temporary drowning, they hadn't a clue how much time had passed; only that there was something deeply wrong. They both climbed out of the cold lake water, dripping wet, and breathed heavily as they stood on the dock.

"You okay?" Claire gasped out to her sister. Amelia nodded and coughed out the water in her throat.

"Yeah." She straightened. "You?"

"Peachy." Claire looked up at the lake house and her eyes widened as she turned back to Amelia. "Shit. Elena."

They made a dash for the lake house, but they were about to go inside when they heard a loud groan from the shed in the back where the wood was. Assuming Elena was in the shed, Claire and Amelia darted for it immediately, but as they came upon the entrance, they found that Stefan was lying inside on the ground, groaning in pain, and Tyler Lockwood was above him with a wooden bullet gun.

"Stefan!" Amelia shouted and flashed to move forward, but Tyler whipped around and fired the wooden bullet gun immediately upon the intrusion. Hit, Amelia was forced on her knees on the floor, where she screamed out in pain from the small wooden weapon. Tyler looked immediately freaked seeing three vampires in his presence, and after shooting Amelia another time, he pointed the gun up at Claire, who held up her hands defensively.

"Tyler! Stop," Claire demanded him. "Why are you doing this?"

"He knows about the curse," Stefan choked out on the floor. Claire widened her eyes at Stefan and then turned back to Tyler, who was still wielding his gun to protect his own neck.

"I can't be like this forever!" Tyler shouted.

"Tyler," Stefan tried from the floor. "I'm just trying to save Elena."

"Elena will be fine!"

"No," Amelia gasped from the floor as she tried to subdue the writhing pain she felt from the wounds in her stomach. "Elena won't be fine."

"What is she talking about?" Tyler asked Claire, his voice loud and heavy. He held the gun more firmly and she gulped down the words before she said them to him.

"Elena won't be fine if the curse is broken," Claire told him. "In order for the curse to _be _broken, she has to die."

Tyler took a long time to respond, looking as if he'd been betrayed by the people closest to him. Claire had no doubt that he was, for those wolves he had entertained the other night were bad company and couldn't be trusted with the truth. At last, Tyler lowered his weapon and Claire immediately flashed over to Stefan and Amelia, where Amelia began to take the wood out of her skin so that it could heal and Claire helped Stefan get his out as well. Tyler remained still and did not threaten nor help them as Stefan and Amelia both healed from the wounds once all the bullets were out, and when they all stood up, they moved out of the shed to make sure Elena was safe. They could hear the screams and groans from inside of the cabin and realized that it was too late; Brady, Tyler's accomplice, had already commenced his plan. But Stefan, as brave as he was, had Claire and Amelia hang back in the shadows with Tyler as he sensed Elena running right for the door, and just as Brady came to chase her outside, Stefan lunged his hand into the wolf's chest and ripped out his heart faster than he could take a breath.

The heart landed on the floor with a thud and Elena, carrying a bloody knife in her hand, whirled around to face Stefan. He looked at her with a look of relief, as she gave him one as well.

"It's okay. It's okay," Stefan breathed out, still recovering from his own injuries. "You're okay."

She rushed into his arms, and for a moment, the two of them had forgotten that they were separated in the first place. Stefan tried to comfort her, much to Amelia's dismay in the background, to which she did not speak to, but Tyler stepped out of the shadows alongside Claire and Amelia with a sorrowful look on his face. Elena spotted him instantly, confused.

"Tyler?"

She pulled away from Stefan while Tyler explained himself. "I didn't know what they were gonna do to you. I didn't. I just...I didn't want to be like this anymore."

Elena could see the hurt in his eyes, and being the compassionate soul that she was, she stepped forward and pulled him into a reassuring hug. Tyler whispered an apology to her, but she brushed it off and just hugged him to let him know that she forgave him.

And nearly everyone breathed out a sigh of relief, grateful that everyone was okay.

* * *

_"It was straight from the witch's mouth," _Damon told his brother over the phone as he stood in the living room of the Gilbert house. _"He was gonna go through with the whole sacrifice. It's a good thing Claire took Elena out of town for a little while. You should probably keep it that way." _

"Be careful," Stefan told him. "Try not to get yourself killed."

_"Yeah. It's been a day for that." _

With nothing more, Damon hung up the phone and Stefan turned around to see Elena joining him as Claire and Amelia sat down on the couch, both freshly showered given their underwater murder by Brady.

"Who was that?" Claire asked Stefan as she pulled a cup of coffee to her lips.

"That was Damon," Stefan replied. He looked over at Elena. "We need to talk."

"What is it?" she asked.

"He learned that Elijah's planning for you to die in the sacrifice ritual," Stefan told her, surprised at Elena's reaction—which was shockingly unsurprised. She looked as if she had been caught, not as if she had been betrayed.

"What?" Amelia asked, looking between Stefan and Elena. "Wait, but isn't that against his deal?"

"I know the deal I made." Elena looked at all three vampires. "Elijah's very careful with his words. He promised to protect my friends—he never said a word about me."

"You mean, you knew that you weren't gonna survive this?" Stefan asked, his voice growing increasingly heated.

Elena looked at him with near tears in her eyes. "If it comes down to the people I love getting killed or me, I know what my choice is gonna be."

"Hold on!" Claire stood up from the couch and turned at Elena angrily. "So you sat out there earlier today talking about your future like you expected to have one when you clearly know that you won't because of this stupid deal you made to keep your friends safe? That's so screwed up!"

"I-I'm sorry, okay?" She looked between Stefan and Claire, the two obviously offended by her decision. "I'm just trying to keep the people that I love safe! I'm trying to keep both of you safe!"

"No." Stefan said coldly as he stepped up to her, a disgusted look in his eyes. "What you're doing is, you're being a martyr!"

"How is that any different from when you say that you'd die to keep me safe?" she countered.

"Because I've already lived!" he snapped. "162 years I have lived, and you've barely begun! Now you want to let yourself get killed?" Elena stared at him blankly as he looked at her angrily. "That's not heroic. That's tragic."

Without saying anything else, Stefan heatedly walked away from Elena, leaving her to remember the two King sisters that she had completely forgotten were with her. Amelia, though slightly confused and slightly bothered by what had happened, left no judgement out of her eyes, and Elena could see that even her friend—Claire, the one person who had rarely looked at her with such judgement—was staring with one of the most judgmental looks that she had seen.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!  
**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thanks :)

**Guest: **They will eventually. She could definitely use a break right around now and we're getting to it. She's dragging out the situation without giving an explanation because she believes she's a cold-hearted bitch and she doesn't want to be loved or be in love with anyone, which is one of her character flaws. But trust me, eventually, she will straighten out. Thanks for reviewing!

**NicoleR85: **She reacted...ish. She needed a getaway but honestly Andie doesn't bother her that much. Delia only pissed her off because it was...Delia lol. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Thanks! Yes. Set up your countdown because Christopher is returning in 2x18. Three more chapters to go!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Pretty much :(

**Tvd2014: **Caroline and Claire are my favorite. They'll become even closer in later episodes and such. This chapter was so painful to write because it was really boring but I wanted to stop making Claire following Damon around everywhere (even though sometimes it can be hilarious) so she needed a Damon-break for a while. The next chapter is really boring to write too but after that it gets more interesting so it'll be a whole lot quicker. Thanks for reviewing!

**grapejuice101: **Thanks! Definitely more drama. So much more. Hope this update was soon enough :)

**NataliaSalvatore: **Thanks! Control your desperateness for a few more episodes :P Damon and Claire are going to be getting some definite action in 2x16 so we're almost there. Yeah they really are clearly in love but unfortunately that might not even be clearly expressed until Season 4, even though it's obviously there. Thanks for reviewing!

**beth: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the next chapter!

**beth: **Sorry for the wait! Here's the next chapter!


	29. The Dinner Party

**Back on my schedule again and good news! This is the last boring episode that I have forced myself to write and the next few are smooth sailing until we get to Season 3! I'm working my hardest to pre-write them for updates every Wednesday at 5PM. Enjoy the chapter everyone!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Dinner Party**

_With the dying embers of the fire at Fell's Church, the scourge of the vampires had passed. And though war raged all around us, our town was safe from the demons of the night. _

_Or so we thought, for the monsters we drove to their fiery deaths had begat new monsters. _

Elena was positioned on the couch in the Gilbert lake house reading Jonathan Gilbert's journal intently to pass the time where she was alone, since all three vampires that accompanied her to the lake house were steering clear of her and her apparent martyr self at the moment. She pushed the thought of them out of her mind and read about the encounter Jonathan Gilbert had with a vampire the following nights after the massacre at the church.

_I knew I was about to die. You cannot run from a vampire. I saw the vampire who killed me; I recognized him. _

_It was Stefan Salvatore. _

Elena read the words over and over again, trying to comprehend them as she looked out the window looking over the clear water and watched as Stefan paced on the edge of the dock by himself. She tried to rid herself of the shock, but it was nearly impossible. Stefan? Stefan Salvatore?

With confounded eyes and a sped heartbeat, she lowered her head and continued reading.

* * *

Stefan watched as the stone he threw at on the lake skipped over and over again, more than it should have if it had been a human's throw. He stood in silence and kept throwing stones so that they skipped nearly halfway over the lake, but just as he threw the second stone in his hand, he heard his phone ringing from his pocket. Solemnly, he reached inside and answered it.

"What's going on?"

_"Well, I showered. I shaved. Had breakfast. Very relaxed." _

Stefan observed Elena inside of the lake house and mumbled, "That makes one of us."

_"I did hear one piece of good news though. Tyler Lockwood ran away from home last night..." _Damon told his brother happily. Stefan raised his eyebrows.

"How do you know?"

_"Well I heard it from Sheriff Forbes, who heard it from a very distraught Carol Lockwood. Thus, ending our werewolf chapter, bringing us to..." _

"Killing Elijah," Stefan finished.

_"Exactly." _

Despite Damon's good mood reflected in his tone, Stefan was quite the opposite. "Well, it's not going to be easy. He's crafty."

_"Well, I've got a crafty little dagger." _

"He's an Original," Stefan complained. "We don't know what all that encompasses."

_"Oh, trust me, Stefan. I'm gonna dot all my t's. I don't want any surprises." _

"Wow," Stefan began, genuinely surprised at his brother's actions, "Damon, tell me you're actually gonna be careful for once?"

He could practically hear the eye roll. _"Yes, Stefan, I've become you. How tragic for both of us. Hey, what's the deal with Judy Moody rejecting my phone calls?" _

Stefan sighed. "You'll have to ask Claire. I'm sure she has her reasons."

_"Well, can you tell her it's extremely annoying? The one time I actually need her around she decided to go on a spa vacation." _Stefan scoffed. _"All right, brother, got to run. I have a murder to plan. Busy day." _

Damon ended the phone call without so much as a warning, but Stefan didn't mind. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned to go back up to the cabin, but just as he did, he watched as Claire and Amelia walked down the dock to meet him. He walked forward to meet them halfway, but he could see the reluctance in his own girlfriend's eyes to come and talk to him. He didn't blame her, after what had happened the night before. Claire squinted at Stefan in the morning sun.

"Let me guess. Damon called you?"

"He says you're ignoring his phone calls," Stefan informed her as they came to a stop on the dock. She shrugged.

"I needed a weekend away from him. Sue me."

"He wanted me to tell you that it's hindering his plans." Though Stefan relayed the information, he was very robotic about doing so. "Says the one time he needed you, you decided to go on a spa retreat."

"Asshole," Claire murmured, but sighed. "Whatever. I'll call him later."

"What's he up to?" Amelia asked.

"He's..." Stefan shook his head and thought for a moment before confessing, "...trying to kill Elijah." Both King girls widened their eyes. "Yeah. I know. But it doesn't seem like we have any more options what with...finding out what we did last night."

Amelia shifted uncomfortably, something so slight and insignificant, yet it caused all three to become quiet. Claire noticed Stefan eyeing Amelia carefully, and she realized that she was basically stepping in the middle of things. Deciding to give her sister and her friend some time to talk, she began to retreat from the situation slowly and cautiously.

"You know, I'm gonna go...check on Elena. See if she's feeling up for a little chat about this nonexistent future she plans to have." Claire muttered a nervous laugh. "You two can...um, figure out your issues."

Leaving Amelia and Stefan to their bidding, Claire walked up from the dock back into the warm cabin, where Elena was sitting on the couch with Jonathan Gilbert's journal in her hand. Upon Claire's entrance, Elena looked up awkwardly, and Claire said nothing to her for a few beats. At last, Elena spoke.

"Is Stefan still mad?"

Claire scoffed. "Of course he's still mad. We're _all _mad, Elena."

"We have a difference of opinion," Elena shot rationally. "Everyone's not going to always agree with me on everything."

"Elena," the vampire began icily, "you've agreed to sacrifice yourself to an Original vampire to break some centuries-old curse based on the words of my vampire bitch sire who scared you into thinking that everyone you love is going to die." Elena lowered her eyes as Claire crossed her arms and scoffed again. "To say that we all have a difference of opinion with you is the understatement of the century."

"You would know."

"Yes, I would. Because, unlike you, I have lived more than 17 years of my life." Bitterly, Claire moved herself over to the couch and propped her feet up on the table, staring at Elena lying down with a blanket over her legs. She shot her a sour smile and looked at the journal in Elena's hands. "Good reading?"

Elena frowned. "More or less. He has a lot to say. It's insane...the things he wrote in his journal that he kept from the Founding Families. Stuff that nobody knows. Stuff that...that Stefan's never told me."

As Elena said her dark thought, she let Claire take the journal for herself and read the bookmarked page as she lowered her feet from the table. Claire's eyes skimmed the words and she saw the description of what Stefan had vaguely recounted to her the night that it happened, and an immediate look of recognition came over her face. Claire looked up at Elena, her blue eyes swarmed with guilt.

"We were...all angry at the Founding Families," Claire whispered quietly as she watched the young teenager shield her eyes. "Stefan and Damon were angry because of Katherine and I was angry...I was angry because I knew that the only reason Christopher died was because of that massacre. We wanted revenge. Stefan told me about what he did to Jonathan Gilbert...neither one of us knew about his ring yet, that he would come back."

"He described Stefan as a monster." Her voice shook.

Claire nodded slowly. "That's because Stefan...Stefan _was _a monster, Elena." The doppelgänger's expression shifted immediately to shock, and Claire set the journal down on the coffee table. "But this...this is only one side, Elena. I can tell you ours."

Elena watched as Claire leaned back in the chair and began.

"When you first become a vampire, there are two paths you can take. You can either relish in it or be content while you're forced to live with it. Damon...Damon didn't really choose a path in the weeks after he'd turned. It had been put off due to his misery over Katherine. I decided to live with it. Stefan, though...Stefan decided to relish."

* * *

**Mystic Falls, 1865**

_"If you're so unhappy here, Damon, then get out!" Clarissa yelled at him as she walked around the Salvatore house that they had taken residence in since Giuseppe's death. She moved around the upstairs, cleaning the messes that Stefan had left behind. Honestly, she didn't mind the messes Stefan made; it was Damon's presence that irked her. _

_"What do you mean 'get out'? This is my house!" he bellowed. She huffed. "Besides, who would call me unhappy?" _

_"I would!" She spun around at him sharply. "All you do is sit around and sulk. You're absolutely miserable and I'm tired of seeing it everywhere I turn! It's pitiful. Especially since I know who it is you're brooding about." _

_Damon grimaced as she continued down the stairs. "This isn't about the fact that I'm pitifully sulking, it's the fact that I'm pitifully sulking about my beloved Katherine." _

_"Your beloved Katherine." Clarissa scoffed the words. "Your beloved and _deceased_ Katherine, if I have it correct. And before you say anything, I reserve the right to hate her, which you can do nothing about." _

_Damon watched as she turned around at him as they reached the end of the staircase and her eyes were full of fiery hatred and irritation. Just as he was about to respond to her, they heard the soft piano that was playing from the parlor turn upbeat in an instant, and the next thing they heard was the sound of fangs piercing skin. Clarissa and Damon both rounded the corner and peered into the parlor, where they witnessed Stefan surrounded by the presence of multiple dark-haired women, all with bite marks in their necks. His shirt was stained with blood, as was his mouth and neck, as he fed off of one of his whores in the parlor. Damon sauntered forward as Clarissa stood, mortified, at the damage around her. _

_"Company, brother?" Damon questioned. _

_Stefan turned back with a snarl. "I brought enough to share." _

_He tossed one of the girls to Damon and the girl landed in his arms, but Damon was less concerned with her and more concerned with the sanity of his brother. "Are you mad bringing them here when the entire town is hunting us?" _

_Stefan walked forward with a groan. "Damon, if you're worried about the Founding Families, please don't be. They're all dead...or about to be." _

_Damon looked around with widened eyes as Clarissa stepped into the room. "Stefan! This is absolutely unacceptable! For once, your brother is right and..." She peered at the couch beside her and observed the blood stains from the dead girl lying upright. Clarissa sighed heavily. "And I'm never going to be able to get the blood stains out of that sofa!"  
_

_"Calm yourself, Clarissa," Stefan told her softly as he turned to her, the body of the girl he was about to feed on between both him and his friend. "Have a drink. Indulge me for a while, this would be so much fun if you joined." _

_Clarissa ignored him and Damon took the girl in his arms and gripped her face with his hands softly, compelling her hurriedly, "Leave this place. Never think of it again." _

_The girl immediately began to walk out and Damon continued to his brother, where he pushed Stefan off the girl he was feeding on and compelled once more, "Same for you. Leave this place, never think of it again." _

_"Damon, don't be like this!" Stefan exclaimed as the girl walked out. "I'm just having some fun!" _

_"Death will not be fun!" Clarissa defended Damon as Stefan looked back at her and watched her step forward with a cautious look in her eye. "I beg you, Stefan. Stop this. We have to be more careful." _

_"More clever," Damon corrected her. "Like Katherine was." _

_Stefan scoffed. "Look where that got her."  
_

_"The next person to talk about Katherine Pierce dies!" Clarissa snapped behind them. Stefan and Damon both looked at her as she clenched her fist hard and stared at them with an ice-covered gaze. "Do you understand me?" _

_Stefan and Damon were both surprised at her coldness but receptive to it as well. They were silent until Damon growled, "I'm done here." His gaze shifted to Stefan. "With you. I'm leaving town."_

_"It must be a blessing," Clarissa murmured under her breath as Damon started to walk out of the parlor, only to be stopped by a panicked Stefan. He rushed in front of his brother and gripped him hard by the shoulders. _

_"You hate me! I know. I know. An eternity of misery and on and on, I know. But you don't have to leave town, Damon, I'll do better. I promise!" _

_"No." Damon's voice was cold and stern. "You will get us killed. I'd rather leave you to do that to yourself." The dark-haired Salvatore looked over his shoulder at the beautiful blonde behind him. "And she can suffer your demise with you." _

* * *

"He wasn't himself back then," Claire defended Stefan to Elena, who listened intently. "He was full of guilt for what he did to Giuseppe. I thought that was all, but upon finding out that Stefan was the one who made Damon transition, I suspect that he was full of guilt for that, too. The only one he hadn't hurt was me, but...but I didn't make things easier on him." She swallowed thickly. "He turned it off so he wouldn't have to feel the pain."

"It sounds like he was Damon," Elena whispered, as if it were a shameful thought. Claire shook her head distractedly.

"No, he wasn't." She pursed her lips. "He was...much worse."

* * *

"I know that what happened last night must've..." Stefan trailed off as he and Amelia walked down to the edge of the dock. Amelia didn't look over at him, though he tried to look at her regardless of the discomfort he felt. "...been a little confusing."

Amelia scoffed. "Why on Earth would it be confusing, Stefan? I'm terrible at gathering context clues." It was a bitter joke, but an indirect nonetheless. He sighed.

"I didn't mean that I would die for Elena, I just meant—"

"That's exactly what you meant, Stefan!" She stopped cold on the deck and Stefan circled her so that they were face-to-face. Her voice was softer the second time. "That's exactly what you meant. Now look, I get it, okay? I've had some pretty epic loves in my fair share of time. But to tell her that you would become a martyr yourself so that she could live when you're not even dating her anymore?"

"I don't know what you want me to say," Stefan admitted quietly. "Elena will always be a part of my life."

"But you're a part of mine," she countered softly. Stefan noticed the wounded look in her eyes, and he couldn't help but feel completely guilty. He watched her swallow cautiously. "Stefan...I've loved you for as long as I can remember. I loved you when I was...five, for Christ's sake. Maybe it wasn't the type of love that made me want to throw myself all over you, but I loved you. I truly did. I loved you even after I ran away from home."

"Amelia..."

"And what's strange about all of it is that I used to have this fantasy in my mind..." Amelia touched her forehead and smiled as if she were remembering it just then. Stefan watched her carefully. "I used to have this beautiful fantasy; a thirteen-year-old girl imagined that Stefan Salvatore, her Knight in Shining Armor would come and sweep her off her feet like in the stories her sister would read to her at bedtime. That they would fall in love, get married, have children together..." Amelia opened her eyes, the color pouring into Stefan's sadly. "And that is who you are, Stefan. You are the Knight and Shining Armor. Truly. And though it didn't happen as fast as I wanted it to, it _did _happen. You don't know how many times I wanted to reveal myself to you over the years, but Katherine knew how much I loved you, and since Christopher was locked away in the tomb, she was obsessed with you...and only you. She kept me as far away from you as humanly possible. Until we got to Mystic Falls, where I saw you and I couldn't stop myself because, Stefan, I love you. I still love you. But you don't owe me your love because of what we felt when we were younger. If you love Elena, you should be with Elena—"

"Amelia, stop." He shook his head, and Amelia looked up at him and silenced herself. Stefan moved forward and grabbed both of her hands passionately. "I love you. I've always loved you. But I love Elena, too, and I just can't help that. If it were you who had to be sacrificed for this ritual, I would never let you die. Just like I'm not going to let her die."

"Elena has people who love her enough to make sure that doesn't happen," Amelia told him assuringly. "Damon...Claire...Caroline...Bonnie...hell, even _me. _We would never let anything happen to her." She squeezed his hands. "But we do it because we care about her because we're her friends. And it's okay to love her, Stefan. It's okay to feel something for her after what you'd been through, but if you're protecting her because you love her more than the way a friend would, it's not okay. Not if you want to move on. Not if you want to move on with me," she added.

She slipped her hands out of his grasp and turned to walk away. He watched as she left him on the deck and walked up, wanting to take a walk to clear her head while she left Stefan alone to think about what she meant.

* * *

Claire walked over to Elena with two cups of tea in her hands to entertain them while she continued the story.

"For weeks, Stefan spiraled." She let Elena take her cup. "Blood, blood, blood; it was all he cared about. The hunt. No one taught him better...I didn't know how to teach him any better, so it was all he knew."

"How come no one caught on to what you were doing?" Elena inquired. Claire shrugged.

"The Civil War was still raging." Elena looked confused, and Claire dropped her voice to a teasing whisper. "Wars mean blood. Lots of it with no one to question the deaths of whoever was injured." The brunette nodded in understanding, and Claire continued her story at a normal tone. "So, as I gathered from what Stefan told me, one day he went out to feed on the injured and ended up attacking a vampire in the woods."

"Who was the vampire?"

"Alexia Branson." Claire gave Elena a sad smile. "She always hated her full name."

"Lexi?" Elena asked, surprised. "Your friend Lexi?

"The one that Damon killed?" Claire moved over to the couch and sat down again, this time with her feet up for good. "Yep."

"That's how Stefan met her?"

"Yep."

"What was she even doing in Mystic Falls?"

Claire sipped her tea and shrugged. "She'd heard through the grapevine that it was a good place for vampires to settle. Of course, the irony in that statement was that it was exactly the opposite. Lexi had no idea that they'd all been massacred weeks before. But she needed a place to stay, so Stefan brought her home and introduced me."

* * *

_Stefan opened the door for Alexia as she began, "I'd say it isn't necessary for you to take me in, but you did try to eat me and well, with dawn coming, beggars can't be choosers." She peered at the mess in the parlor and mumbled, "Or should they be?" _

_"Stefan Salvatore!" Clarissa called as she angrily dropped the wheelbarrow full of bodies that Stefan had left all over the parlor for her to clean up. Her eyes settled upon Alexia. "It's bad enough you've left me to dispose of your godforsaken mess and now you've brought home another?! You're absolutely relentless!" _

_"Clarissa, Alexia is not human. She is a vampire, like the two of us," Stefan told her softly. Clarissa relaxed as Stefan introduced them. "Alexia, this is my friend, Clarissa King. Clarissa, this is Alexia Branson. I offered her a place to stay."  
_

_"That's...oddly kind of you," Clarissa noted as Alexia walked into the parlor and observed the mess she was trying to dispose of. Clarissa's eyes wondered on Alexia as she turned around at Stefan with wide eyes. _

_"My God, you're a ripper." _

_"A what?" Stefan inquired. _

_"There are good parts of being a vampire and there are bad parts. You're the bad parts." She paused as Stefan and Claire looked around the room, confused to what she was saying. "Well...we're going to have to change that." _

* * *

Elena watched as Claire's face dropped thinking about Lexi, and concerned, she asked quietly, "Hey...are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Claire looked up at her quickly, but it was hardly the truth. She lowered her legs from the coffee table, shifted in the chair, and let out a deep sigh. "Just...thinking about Lexi makes me remember things I'd rather forget at the moment."

"Like...Damon killing her?" Elena offered. Claire scowled.

"Primarily," she agreed and irritatedly tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I forgot how much easier it was to be in different time zones than that man. My life would be so much simpler."

"No," Elena countered, earning a dismayed look from her friend. Regardless, Elena didn't back down. "What? It wouldn't be and you know it. We're not going to sit here and go through this again. I know you love Damon, it's too obvious!"

Claire stared at Elena blankly for a moment, but Elena could see the twitch in Claire's lips and suddenly, Claire broke out into hysterical laughter. Elena watched as Claire buried her head in her hand and laughed for a while, a long while, and at last came up for air while flipping her hair out of her eyes and checking the bottom of her lids for hysterical tears from her laughing fit. She laughed a few more times before stabilizing.

"I'm sorry, that was just...that was just too funny." Claire leaned back in her chair with her hands feeling the side of the armchair for the smoothness as she smiled thinking about Elena's comment. "Elena, 'love' is a word that I don't use with people. Ever; period. Especially not with Damon."

"Why?" Elena asked.

"Because," Claire sighed heavily, "being in love is something that I have never experienced; nor will I ever experience in my entire immortal life. Love doesn't exist for me." She took a longing sip of her tea and looked out through the window. "It never has, and it never will."

Right as she finished the sentence, there was the sound of the door closing behind her. Claire and Elena both turned back to see Amelia entering the house and shredding her jacket, looking not frustrated or sad but more melancholic than anything. Without moving, Claire spoke to her sister.

"Hey," she said over her shoulder, catching her sister's attention. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Amelia walked over to Claire and Elena. "What's going on in here?"

"I'm recounting the stories of Stefan's Dark Days." Claire pulled her lips to the mug in her hand. "Which is odd because I'm not Stefan. Huh. I think I might know him better than I know myself. Where is the old bastard, anyways?"

"'Old bastard'?" Stefan quoted as he slid open the back door and shred his own jacket. He and Amelia exchanged glances, but didn't speak. The younger Salvatore spotted Claire's smile. "You're older than I am."

"Yeah, but I'm prettier." She smirked at him and looked over at Elena, who was engrossed in Jonathan Gilbert's journal. Thinking it was time to tell Stefan what they'd been up to, she glanced up at him. "I was telling Elena about what happened after we turned in 1865. Hope you don't mind."

"About...?" Stefan trailed off, confused.

"About Lexi."

"Oh."

Claire nodded and looked up at Amelia, who was standing over her armchair. "Do you need a 'previously on' or do you already know what I'm talking about?"

"I know," Amelia said softly. "Stefan...mentioned it once." She looked up and caught Stefan's gaze, but within seconds, she ripped her eyes away from his and focused on Elena at the couch and watched as the brunette knotted her eyebrows. "Something interesting, Elena?"

Elena looked up at her distractedly, but shook her head. "Jonathan Gilbert just got crazier and crazier...I guess that's what happens when you spend your life obsessed with vampires."

She set one journal down on the table in front of her and pulled out another. The minute she looked at the first page, her face turned from confused to immediately curious. Everyone noticed the shift.

"What is it?" Claire asked, leaning forward.

"He researched the Originals," she announced.

"You're kidding," Stefan muttered as he came behind her at the couch. She looked up at him and nodded.

"Later in life. Look." She flipped through the book. "Pages and pages of questions and scribbles!" Suddenly, Elena came to a stop when she saw a drawing of what looked like a dagger. "What's that?"

"What?" Claire asked, getting up from her seat and sitting next to Elena with the journal in her hand. Amelia snuck around the armchair and grabbed the tea that Claire had put down and snatched it up while stealing Claire's original spot. They were too engrossed in the book to care. The blonde knotted her eyebrows at the journal. "Is that...is that a dagger?"

"'The wood from one tree and one tree alone, an ancient white oak, would bring death to an Original vampire. When the tree burned, all hope was thought lost'." Elena scoffed. "He was trying to figure out how to kill an Original."

Stefan turned his head and Claire looked up at him, both of them knowing what Elena didn't know. Though Stefan had more information than Claire did, they both knew what Damon was attempting to do.

Elena continued reading aloud, "'But the ash from the tree was saved and witches forged a dagger in which the ash could be bonded. This alchemic bond provides the necessary poison'..."

"Elena..." Stefan tried to stop her, but Elena barreled on quickly.

"I wonder if this is true! I mean, do you think this...dagger actually exists?"

"I know it does," he interrupted. Elena looked up at him, confused. "Because John gave it to Damon."

Upon hearing the news, Claire held up her palms and her face immediately turned down as she overpowered Stefan's voice. "Hold on! You mean to tell me that _John Gilbert, _Elena's biological father who hates vampires and tried to get me and Damon killed, gave his nemesis, otherwise known as _your _brother, the weapon that's supposed to kill Elijah?"

Stefan sighed. "Yeah."

"Why?!" Claire stood up immediately, confused out of her mind. But before Stefan could answer, Elena spoke from her place on the couch.

"Wait, so he gave Damon this dagger? This exact one?" She pointed at the page over and over.

"Yes," Stefan said, feeling as if he had been saying it ten thousand times over. Elena looked down and began to read again, this time panicked.

"'It must be brandished by humans alone, for it will bring death to all demons who wield it'!" she exclaimed, looking up at Stefan with alarmed eyes. Stefan reached over quickly and read the passage, whereupon he came to the same conclusion.

"John's trying to get Damon killed!" He moved over to the side and immediately pulled out his phone to call his brother. Claire slapped her hands to her sides.

"I could've told you that!"

Though they unfortunately couldn't get in touch with Damon, they were luckily able to get Alaric to answer his phone and managed to tell him. Once all they could do was wait for Alaric to put a stop to Damon's plan, Stefan stepped out onto the terrace, where Elena was standing outside wrapped in a blanket to think about the fact that all the vampires in her family's house had been lying to her about what was going on back in Mystic Falls. Though it probably wasn't a good idea, Stefan went outside, anyways.

"Elena, we need to talk about this," he tried.

She spun around angrily and complained, "What good is talking if the four of you are just gonna lie to me?" Stefan hung his head. "If you don't like my decisions, that's fine; there's nothing I can do about that. But if you ever go behind my back again, I'll—"

"You're gonna what? Hmm?" Stefan snapped at her. "What are you gonna do, Elena?

"It's _my _life!"

"Yeah, exactly!" he exclaimed. "It's your life, and the four of us are going to make sure you live it. _I _am going to make sure you live it because...because you're my friend, Elena, and I care about you." Stefan had rushed out the words so fast that he was forced to swallow the aftermath in the back of his throat. He could see Elena's confused face, but the two of them were silent for a few beats before she continued.

"So this...this...this trip through the past Claire has been telling me about, was there any truth to that or was she just meant to distract me?" Elena asked softly.

"She was telling you about a time where I thought that everything was lost," Stefan said, pinching the bridge of his nose to collect his thoughts for a moment. "When I had given up, because that's _exactly _what you're doing right now.

"That is _not _what I'm—"

"Yes, it is!" Stefan shouted at her. "Even if you don't want to admit it. You are giving up! And Lexi...Claire? They wouldn't let me give up! No one here is gonna let you."

Elena stared at him, pondering his heavy words for as long as she needed to as Stefan remembered what it felt like to want so terribly to give up on himself.

* * *

_"All of these men are dead or dying," Alexia informed Clarissa and Stefan as they walked through the infirmary camps set up on the outskirts of the war. Clarissa looked around, her hunger threatening to burst as she tried to keep it under control. _

_"I'm well aware of that, Alexia, but it was nice to be informed," she mumbled. _

_Alexia smiled at her, but looked over at Stefan. "What does that make you feel?" _

_"Nothing. I feel nothing!" Stefan snapped. She sighed. _

_"That's because you shut out the part of you that was human. The part that lets you feel." _

_He scoffed. "Is that not the point?" _

_"Well, there is a better way. You simply have to want it." _

_"Is it better?" _

_"Not at first. You can't choose what you feel. You have to let it all back in. The pain, the look in your eyes when you took their life, the cries of their loved ones..." _

_Stefan stopped them in the midst of the field and snapped at her again, "Why would I want to do that?" _

_"Because once you can hurt, you can love," Alexia replied. "Love, Stefan...that's the point. Everything is intensified when you're a vampire. When we hurt, we really hurt. But when we love..." _

_She smiled at him sweetly, letting him finish the point for himself. Clarissa stood behind Alexia, thinking over Alexia's words but not believing them for a second. She turned her head from the other blonde and mumbled, "Love isn't real." _

_Confused, Alexia turned around. "But it is, Clarissa. Love is more than real. Love is everything." _

_"I don't get it." Clarissa held her shoulders tense and looked around, hungry but refusing to give into the thirst. She looked at Alexia furiously. "I'm not the one that needs to be fixed. I can feel. I know that these people are dying. I've rarely taken human life since transitioning." _

_"Clarissa, you have done an excellent job at burying the monster inside of you." Alexia put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But without the proper taming, someday that beast may arise. And you had intensified emotions even before you were turned. As a vampire, that is only worse. One day your temper may not want to be subdued. It's up to you to avoid that day." _

_Clarissa was reluctant, but at last, she sighed. "All right." _

* * *

"Lexi showed us there was a better way." Stefan and Elena turned to see Claire leaning up against the back door of the lake house, observing Stefan as he told the final story she was coming up to. Claire watched as Stefan gave her a sad smile and she walked out to the terrace, facing Elena. "She taught Stefan how to receive his emotions. She taught me how to tame them. But what she taught us both was how to fight to live another day without being empty."

"That's all we want, Elena." Another King appeared as Amelia stepped out onto the terrace and nodded at her. "We just want you to fight for it."

With that said, all three vampires walked away, starting with Stefan and ending with Claire so that Elena could have time to think about what they were telling her to do.

A while later, Claire sat on the couch flipping through the Gilbert journal filled with research on the Originals while Elena was still outside on the terrace thinking to herself. Amelia and Stefan came down the stairs together, and without looking up, she said to them, "Did you two finally make up?"

"Not that it's any of your business, sis, but yes. We did." Amelia looked at Stefan, who gave her a soft smile.

"Good." Claire nodded while pursing her lips and reading Jonathan Gilbert's crazy words. Stefan put his phone down on the table.

"Elijah's dead." Claire looked up, awaiting the verdict. "Alaric did it."

Claire let out a breath of relief. "Also good. Strangely so. But I've always said, if Damon died, I'd be the one to kill him. Not...himself." She looked up in curiosity at her statement, but shrugged it off by looking down at the journal again. Stefan and Amelia came to either side of the arm chair she was sitting on. She sighed. "These classy Originals believed in two things: truth and honor. Vampire vs. Vampire was taboo, so the dagger would take both lives instead of just the one. But as long as the dagger stays in place, the Original—Elijah, in our case—will stay 'dead'." Claire paused. "Not really _dead, _but more of a frozen state. It's weird. They can come back, but—"

Before she was able to finish her sentence, Stefan rushed to the phone to call Damon back, and both Claire and Amelia watched him with concern as he relayed the information from Claire's mouth to Damon's ears.

* * *

They were too late. Since Alaric had taken the dagger out of Elijah's back, Elijah was up and running, headed right to the Gilbert lake house to retrieve Elena, their deal having been broken by the treason against him. Claire and Elena stood at the door right as Elijah used a few stones in his hands to blow it open, startling them both. Elena turned to Claire.

"He's here," Claire grumbled.

"You have to go. I need to talk to him alone," Elena pleaded.

"The hell you will, Elena—"

"Claire, it's okay! He can't come in the house," she reasoned.

"You know," Elijah said from outside, "I might not be able to enter this house...but I'm a very patient man. I'll wait you out."

Elena turned to the door, and walking forward, she stepped into sight and came right up to the threshold. Elijah noticed her immediately, but he didn't say anything. He waited for Elena to speak, and when she did, it was half-apologetic. "They shouldn't have done what they did."

"The deal is off."

"I'm renegotiating!" Elena urged.

"You have nothing left to negotiate with," Elijah countered her, stepping closer to the threshold to meet her gaze. Elena swallowed and looked at him with intent in her eyes, but at last, she produced a blade tucked into her arm and showed the shining silver weapon to Elijah. He eyed it curiously, but again, said nothing.

"I'd like to see you lure Klaus into Mystic Falls after the doppelgänger bleeds to death."

Elijah frowned. "Claire won't let you."

"No, she won't," Elena agreed. "She'll just feed me her blood to heal me, and then I'll kill myself and become a vampire, just like Katherine did." Elijah cocked his head at her. "Unless you want that to happen again, promise me the same as before—promise me you won't harm anyone I love...even if they've harmed you!"

Elijah pursed his lips in thought, but at last, he said quietly, "I'm sorry, Elena. I'm gonna have to call your bluff."

The brunette took out a shaking breath as she realized what he was asking her to prove. She was hesitant, but she turned the blade around to her stomach and took a sharp inhale. She knew Claire wouldn't let her die. No one inside the lake house would let her die.

So without further delay, she stabbed herself right in the abdomen with the sharp blade, causing her to let out a cry in pain. Elijah flashed up to the threshold, alarmed, but she was inside of the house and he was unable to come inside. Elena groaned in agony, but she waited for him to agree.

"Yes!" he barked out. "Yes! You can have your deal! Let me heal you!'

"Give me your word!" Elena shouted to him. Elijah let out a long breath, but he agreed.

"I give you my word."

She fell into his arms, weak as can be, but right as she reached the comfort of his embrace, she stabbed him right in the middle of the chest. Elijah dropped to the ground, rendered dead with the dagger in the midst of his chest, and Claire flashed out from the house and pulled Elena upright, seeing as Elena had also collapsed to the floor from the pain in her stomach. Claire bit into her wrist and healed Elena quickly while Stefan, Amelia, and Damon emerged from inside of the house slowly.

"Little tip." Damon looked at his brother and his brother's girlfriend disappointedly. "Don't pull the dagger out."

* * *

Damon, Claire, and Stefan all stood in the Salvatore cellar where they'd dragged Elijah's body after returning from the lake house. Amelia had gone to drop Elena home, doing her part in the Elena watch. Damon bent down and searched Elijah's pockets, eventually coming to find the forgotten moonstone that was now in their possession.

"What do we have here?" He examined the stone. "Our little moonstone bar of soap. I'll hold onto this."

"Then that's that." Claire looked down at Elijah's body with her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against the threshold of the cell. "As long as we keep the dagger in, Elijah stays dead, and that's one problem solved."

"Pretty much," Damon agreed.

Claire sighed and straightened. "You could've died today, Damon."

"I'm well aware of that, but thanks for the reminder." He mumbled the words to her, and she frowned at him.

"I'm serious! You two are absolutely astounding!" She looked between both Stefan and Damon. "I mean, did anyone even _think _to get my opinion on this little plan? First of all, John fucking Gilbert gave you that stupid dagger. Second of all..._John fucking Gilbert _gave you that dagger! The man can't be trusted!"

"Damon thought—" Stefan began, attempting to defend Damon, but Claire groaned at him.

"'Damon thought', 'Damon thought', 'Damon thought'," she said to them bitterly. Her eyes landed on Damon. "This wouldn't have been a problem if you'd have shared the information with me to begin with! Or at least waited until I came back to go around killing all-mighty Original vampires!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have gone on your completely untimely 'Girls' Weekend' with Elena," Damon countered to her, stepping forward. She clenched her fists at him.

"I wouldn't have to if you weren't stealing my scarves to play dress-up with your human blood bag!"

"Okay! Okay!" Stefan jumped in between the middle of them as he saw that Damon was about to respond viciously to her comment. He looked between them. "Enough, guys. It's been a long enough day without this. Quit it."

Things settled down with Stefan's mediation, and at last, Claire crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "Well, thanks to the trip down memory lane today, Elena decided that she actually wants to fight to live, so though she's a little pissed that we didn't tell her about killing Elijah, she'll get over it." Claire let her eyes drift between the Salvatore brothers. "As for me, you both know how much I hate being cut out of the plan. Whether it be because I was unreachable or you just didn't want to tell me because for some reason it made sense in your minds, I don't appreciate it. From now on, we're gonna do everything together. All of us. Got it?"

The two brothers were quiet, but at last, Stefan nodded. "Okay, fine."

She waited for Damon to answer, and finally, he produced a shrug. "Seems fair."

"Good." Claire heard something from the ground level, and she sighed. "I guess Amelia's home from dropping Elena off. I'm going up."

She left Stefan and Damon to themselves, and once Claire was gone, Damon cocked an eyebrow at Stefan.

"Was it just me or did she seem _extremely_ jealous about Andie?"

Stefan scowled. "Don't drag me into the middle of this...whatever it is. But I highly doubt it."

Damon shrugged. "I think it was jealousy."

His brother pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "Or, she could be having an extremely tough week dealing with the fact that she's had to make sure Elena doesn't off herself before we can even get a chance to figure out what's going on." Stefan crossed his arms. "Luckily for us, Claire finally got through to her."

"Yeah, what was that about? She finally talked some sense into Elena?"

Stefan paused. "She...told her a little story about when I was making the wrong decisions and somebody showed me there was a better way."

For a moment, Damon was confused, but finally, he scowled. "Lexi?"

"Yeah..." Stefan smiled bitterly. "You remember her?"

Saying nothing more, Stefan left the cellar as well to go upstairs and join Claire and Amelia, but Damon stayed down in the cellar for a few moments longer, taking a beat to think to himself about his own time with Lexi when she was helping Stefan.

* * *

_Damon snuck down the stairs late at night as he attempted to flee the Salvatore house without alarming his brother or his former friend. As he walked towards the door, however, there seemed to be someone almost waiting for him to leave._

_"Going somewhere?" _

_Damon stopped and peered into the parlor, where another blonde vampire other than Clarissa stood in by the candlelight. He paused and surveyed her. _

_"You must be the vampire I hear my brother complaining about," Damon said bluntly. She curtseyed. _

_"That would be me." Alexia walked forward. "And you must be the brother who hates him. And the man that Clarissa can't seem to stand." _

_Damon set down his suitcase to talk with Alexia. "We are all at irreparable odds."_

_Alexia studied him, but at last, she decided to blurt out, "You know the hate you're feeling towards Stefan? The love you're feeling towards Claire_—_" _

_"I don't feel love towards her. If anything, it's hatred," Damon snapped. Alexia stared at him with a soft smile. _

_"The love you're feeling towards Claire," she repeated gently. He turned his cheek away from her. "You think you have it under control, but you don't. Just like she doesn't. It will get the best of you." _

_Without replying to her ridiculous prediction, Damon bent down and grabbed the suitcase on the floor. "Help him. He needs it." _

_Alexia stared for a moment, but all she did was nod. "I'll help him." _

_"And her?" _

_"And her." _

_With that said, Damon turned on his heel and walked out of the door of his home, where Alexia, nor anyone else, tried to stop him._

* * *

When Damon entered his bedroom after returning from downstairs in the cellar, he realized that his shower was running. Confused, Damon called out, "Andie? I thought you left."

He turned into the room and walked towards the bathroom, where he observed a very naked girl in his shower. But she didn't have the curves of Andie, she had the curves of someone much more familiar to him. Damon's smile dropped as he watched Katherine Pierce round the shower, dripping wet and clad for him to see without a single care.

"Hello, Damon," she greeted him. His eyes widened as she combed her hair with her fingers, not bothering to cover any part of herself. "Hey, do you have a robe?"

His head tilted, and though he was distracted by the desirous sight in front of him, he ended up finally asking, "How'd you get out?"

Katherine smiled slyly. "I knew that if I _begged _you not to kill Elijah, that's exactly what you'd do. Little known fact—Originals can compel vampires, but as soon as they die, the compulsion wears off..."

"And you knew?" Damon muttered.

"And I'm still here," she promised, alluding to their earlier conversation in the tomb where she had told him that she wouldn't leave Mystic Falls and would help them fight Klaus. "I didn't run. I meant what I said, Damon. I'm going to help you. So...how about that robe?"

All he could do was stare.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**NicoleR85: **Thanks! Here it is! Andie and Claire won't be having interactions until 2x19 when that whole thing with Elijah and Elena happens because Claire's gonna be with Damon in that chapter but if she does end up acting all high and mighty, trust me, Claire will definitely put her in her place. I never liked Andie either. Thanks for reviewing!

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**Tvd2014: **Next chapter, I promise! And they can only improve from there :) At least for this season anyway. No problem! Thanks for reviewing!

**grapejuice101: **It had been a really long time only because that episode made me dread writing it soooo much but whatever I got over it and managed to use some of that productiveness towards this chapter too. Claire and Elena's friendship is definitely growing stronger and will only grow stronger from here through the rest of the series. Since Elena doesn't have Stefan anymore, she needs another in to the inner circle, which is Claire. Thanks for the review!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Same.


	30. The House Guest

**New cover because...why not? Sorry for the wait on this. I'm really struggling but I hope I get over this writer's block so we can finally get to Season 3. Bare with me for a while, I promise it'll be worth it!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The House Guest**

Without looking up from the copy of Jonathan Gilbert's original journal that Alaric had made, Damon reached forward for his glass of breakfast blood and brought it to his mouth to drink. Right as the blood was inches away from touching his lips, the glass was ripped right out of his hand, causing him to be forced to look up and find a grinning blonde vampire as she sat down beside him on the couch confidently.

"I'll take that, thank you." With a smirk, she downed the entire glass in one swallow and set the empty crystal on the coffee table. Damon scoffed at her. "Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"

"You're a bitch," he countered, but she didn't take offense to it. "Where's Stefan?"

"He and Amelia are upstairs...doing what they do, I suppose." Claire leaned back on the couch tiredly. "I should've picked a room farther from his."

Damon chuckled and continued reading the copy of the journal. "Have you suddenly decided that you are annoyed by every couple within a ten mile radius?"

"I'm annoyed by the sounds I hear at night," Claire corrected him. He raised an eyebrow and looked back at her, where she dramatically demonstrated, "'Oh, Stefan! Oh, Stefan, _yes!'_"

He smiled. "Good thing we were always quieter than that."

"Yeah, but we had a reason for that." She brushed it off.

"Look, if it bothers you so much, then switch rooms."

"I don't want to. I like my room."

"Then figure out another solution." He flipped the loose page so he could read another two-to-a-page copy. "It sounds to me like you could use some inappropriate shouting for yourself."

Claire rolled her eyes. "Was that supposed to be an invitation or a suggestion?"

"Both."

Before Claire could get the chance to respond to his vague and suggestively inappropriate comment, both of them could hear the bell at the door chime for their attention. Damon didn't bother looking up, indicating to Claire that he refused to answer the door. With a sigh, she forced herself onto her feet and mumbled, "No, Damon. You sit, I'll get the door."

"Thanks, sugar," Damon called, hearing her mutter. She gave him a sour look over her shoulder as she walked up to the door and opened it to reveal Elena standing at the front porch step, awkwardly holding the strap of her school bag. Claire smiled at her, confused.

"Elena. Hey, what are you doing here?"

Hearing Elena's name, Damon's ears perked up, and he jumped out of his seat on the couch and flitted to the door in an instant. Elena's eyes adjusted to his quick movement and he gave her a kind smile.

"Hey, Elena. Thanks for coming."

"Yeah, no problem." She cleared her throat and walked through the threshold that Damon opened for her. "What's this about?"

"Yeah, Damon," Claire added, even more confused than Elena sounded. Damon shut the door and looked at the two of them with pursed lips. The blonde crossed her arms. "What _is _this about?"

Damon hadn't planned on telling Claire at all; though it occurred to him that he might mention it to Elena, he thought worrying Claire was unnecessary. The only reason he even thought to tell Elena was ever in case she decided to go poking holes through his lie by pulling another one of her stunts to go talk to Katherine, especially with what was going on in Mystic Falls. But since Claire was with them, there was no way she was backing down. He sighed realizing that he was going to be forced to tell her.

"Just...let's go sit down, okay? In the study. I need a drink for this." He pushed Elena and Claire in the direction of the study, and as he tuned out the sounds of Claire's confused questions while they walked, his ears noted another bell chime at the front door.

"Did you invite all of Mystic Falls for this secret meeting?" Claire quipped. Damon pushed her forward with a frown.

"No. Just go wait in there."

"Whatever." She looked at Elena. "I could use a drink, too."

With that said, Claire and Elena walked into the study and Damon turned back around at the door. As Claire and Elena disappeared down the hallway, Damon swung the door open to reveal Elena _again, _standing on the front porch with her hair straight as a stick and a soft, kind smile on her face. Damon's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull as he realized that one of the brunette humans in the vicinity of his property had to be Katherine. Though the Elena in front of him was dressed in her clothing, she wasn't certain that it _was _Elena.

"Morning, Damon," the second doppelgänger said sweetly. "What is this—?"

Damon moved so quickly, he had the second Elena inside of the house and pinned up against the door faster than she could blink with his hand wrapped around her throat. The second Elena gasped for air.

"What are you doing here?" he snarled. "I told you to leave!"

"What is your...problem?!" Elena choked out.

"Wearing her clothes? You think that's gonna work?"

He watched as the girl underneath his hand shifted for a moment, and with his sadistic smile, Damon was expecting to watch her give in and shove him off with her vampire space. Instead, he watched as Elena's features fell and she gripped at his hand with a human strength and managed to get a few words out from his tight grasp.

"You think I'm Katherine?" Damon looked into Elena's eyes, trying to decide whether it was a trick or not. The human's eyes widened. "Why would you think that? Katherine's in the tomb! Isn't she?"

Damon's face fell as he loosened his grip on Elena's throat and felt two presences behind them. Damon and Elena turned to see Stefan and Amelia rushing down the stairs, confused as to what was happening.

"Damon! What are you doing?" Amelia snapped at him as she shoved Damon off of Elena. The human caught her breath as Stefan looked at his brother.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Elena finally caught her breath and looked up at Damon angrily. "I don't know, you tell me! Is Katherine in the tomb or not?"

Damon swallowed thickly, but he didn't answer the question. Instead, he brushed past his brother, Elena, and Amelia and immediately flashed to the study, where he briskly walked in. The woman he believed to be Katherine was sitting on the couch laughing at something Claire said as Claire poured herself a glass of bourbon. At Damon's urgency, Claire turned around at him with a faltering smile.

"Whoa, what's got your panties in a twist, Turbo Racer?" She chuckled and sipped a bit of her drink. Damon growled at Katherine on the couch.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

She stood up, confused. "What are you talking about? You asked me to come here earlier because you had something to tell me."

"I told you to leave!" Damon barked.

"Damon!" Claire set her glass down and frowned at him. "What are you so angry about? You were the one who invited her here—!"

"It's Katherine, Claire!"

Claire rolled her eyes. "Katherine's in the tomb."

"No, she's not, okay? That's what I wanted to tell Elena; Elijah died, Katherine got released. Get the hell out of here, Katherine," Damon pushed at Elena. The doppelgänger shook her head at him vigorously.

"D-Damon, I'm not...I'm not—"

But by then, Claire had already begun to believe what Damon was telling her, and she could see it in Elena's eyes and the confirmation by Stefan and Amelia, who had walked into the study as well and looked at Katherine with the same disgust Damon was looking at her with. Claire's lips had turned hard and suddenly, the blonde had the doppelgänger bitch by her throat up against a bookcase. She gasped, pretending to be human and frail, but Claire did nothing but kept a firm hold on the doppelgänger's throat.

"You bitch!"

"Claire!" She struggled against the hard clasp on her throat. "Claire! You're hurting me!"

"Spare me the theatrics, Katherine!"

"What theatrics?" Everyone in the room turned to look at the other doppelgänger, who was standing by the lower-level entrance to the study with her arms crossed and a cat-like smile on her face. Claire, confused, released her hand off of Elena's throat and listened as Elena choked up the squeeze in her throat as Katherine smiled at her doppelgänger. "It's getting really easy being you."

"What..." Elena tried to catch her breath as everyone in the room processed the duplicity they'd been deceived on and listened to Elena try to choke out her sentence. "What is she doing here?"

"When we killed Elijah, it broke the compulsion and freed the bitch from the tomb," Damon answered.

"How is that possible?" Stefan chimed.

"He's an Original. They have all sorts of special skills," Katherine replied. Amelia narrowed her eyes at Katherine.

"Which is why you've been making me drink that nasty vervain for the last century and a half?"

"Yep," Katherine agreed, popping the 'p' with another smile on her face as she tilted her head, acting innocently. Amelia rolled her eyes and watched as her sister nearly had a vein burst in her forehead from the presence of Katherine in the room.

"I don't want you here," Claire mumbled throatily. "Elena doesn't want you here, Amelia doesn't want you here, Damon doesn't want you here, Stefan doesn't want you here...if someone doesn't get this bitch out of here, I'm going to do it myself!"

"You need me, Claire," Katherine told the heated blonde. She looked around at them. "You all do."

"Like hell." Elena scoffed.

"We all want the same thing! Klaus dead. Yet here you all are, running around like chickens with their heads cut off." Katherine crossed her arms and Elena unintentionally did the same thing.

"I don't need your help and I don't want it," she said determinedly. Katherine frowned.

"And that's incredibly _stupid _of you." Katherine's eyes drifted across the vampires. "Do you know where Klaus is? When he's coming, what he _looks _like?"

Damon stepped forward. "If you know something, say it or get out!"

"Fine." She shrugged. "Then I'll just...go to the Grill had have some lunch. Maybe Aunt Jenna's free for a bite."

It was a threat, there was nothing more to it. If they kicked Katherine out, she would wreck havoc on the town and there was no denying that. Realizing that they couldn't let anyone get hurt, the reluctant group allowed Katherine to stay and shortly after, Stefan and Amelia left with Elena to go to school.

* * *

"Stefan's out playing peacemaker with the Martins," Claire announced as she walked into the Salvatore foyer, finding Damon sifting through the box of Gilbert journals they brought back from the lake house. He looked back at her as she came up to him on his right side and looked in the box. "You think we'll get the witches on our side?"

"What other side do they have to play for?" Damon scoffed. "Elijah's dead, they can't fix that. Though I highly doubt a bunch of know-it-all witches will work with us."

Claire shrugged and picked up a journal from inside of the box. "Bonnie does."

"Bonnie's the exception. Besides, it doesn't change the fact that she still hates it." He paused and looked up at Claire as she examined the journal in her hand. "Plus, she lost her powers so she doesn't count."

"Yeah..." Claire sighed and caught Damon's gaze. "And...she kind of did try to barbecue us. Indirectly, of course. I think the only witch we could count on was Emily Bennett."

Damon snorted. "You. The only witch _you _could count on. She screwed me over."

"Because you wanted to release a bunch of murderous vampires loose on her hometown just so that you could rescue a woman that wasn't even in the place you were looking for her in," she said sharply. Damon laughed without looking up at her.

"Yes, but if Emily hadn't destroyed that crystal, I would've gotten the tomb open a hell of a lot earlier, no witches had to have been harmed, and you would've gotten back together with your former husband and lived happily ever after."

She sighed. "But Katherine still wouldn't have been in that tomb." Damon and Claire shared a glance as she admitted, "Happy endings don't exist, Damon."

He smirked. "Maybe not the romantic ones."

"Could you two dial down the flirting?" Katherine asked promptly as she sauntered into the parlor to observe Claire and Damon shifting through the journals. Damon ignored her and continued to organize the books so that they could flip through them. Claire watched Katherine as she gave a disgusted look. "I could hear it all the way from upstairs."

Claire smiled at her sourly. "You could always...you know, get the hell out. Then you wouldn't be forced to hear anything and I wouldn't be forced to look at you. It's a win-win!"

Katherine scowled, but regardless, when Claire dropped her sour smile and began to rummage through the box again, she looked at Damon. "So...what you up to?"

"None of your business," he shot.

"We're pouting now?" He didn't respond. "Are those the Gilbert Journals?" Again, Damon ignored Katherine, mumbling to himself as he relayed the year the journal in his hand was created and set it in the correct pile. Katherine took in a deep, irritated breath. "How am I supposed to help you if you won't tell me what you're up to?"

"Can you tell me where a bunch of witches were massacred in this town a couple centuries ago?" Damon asked sharply.

Katherine shrugged. "No."

"Then you can't help."

"Claire's helping and she doesn't know where the witches were massacred," Katherine countered. Claire looked over at her from beside Damon with a grimace.

"Because I live here. I live here because I'm an invited guest here, not because I threatened to go and kill people if I don't get to stay here," she replied.

Though Katherine was clearly displeased, she sighed and brushed past it. "Well, I came here to help so..."

Katherine reached forward to grab a journal, therefore Damon reached down and slapped it away. With a look of disdain, Katherine tried it again, but Damon blocked her effort once more until it became a full-on slapping fight. After having enough of Katherine's childishness, Damon flashed them so that he had his hand curled around her throat tightly and Katherine's body pinned underneath his on the piano chair a few feet away from where Claire was standing with the journals. After observing the fight for a moment, Claire became disinterested and resumed Damon's work while she heard Katherine gasp at Damon in a sense of desire behind her that almost, though not entirely, irked her.

"If it's any consolation, I'm glad that you're not dead." With a huff and no reply, Damon lifted himself off of her dramatically. Katherine gave a familiar laugh and lifted herself so that she was close to his face while she smiled vindictively. "Emily Bennett told me about the massacre. It was a big deal in witch folklore." She returned to Claire's side where, no matter how much the blonde hated her enemy, she was just as engaged in the knowledge as Damon was. "When a witch dies violently, they release a mystical energy marking the place of their death with power."

Damon walked up behind Katherine as she picked up a journal and he pried it from her hands while stating, "Elijah wanted to know the site of the massacre."

"What was he gonna do when he found it?"

"Go find a crystal ball and see if you can find out for us," Claire sneered.

"What'd Papa Witch and Baby Witch have to say?" Damon called out as he heard Stefan and Amelia walk into the boarding house, observing the scene before them. Katherine's head turned and watched as the couple walked in and Stefan stared at Katherine in teasing disappointment that was more a joke for everyone except for Katherine.

"Isn't she, uh, gone or...dead yet?" he prompted.

"For the last time, I'm here to help," Katherine snapped. "Can we skip the secrets, hmm?"

"You show us yours, we'll show you ours." Amelia cracked a smile. "Isn't that how it's supposed to work?" Katherine shot her a glare, and finally, Amelia rolled her eyes and answered, "Whatever. Elijah didn't have a weapon that could kill Klaus. He thought that if a witch could channel enough power, they wouldn't need one."

Damon watched his brother and Claire's sister closely. "Like the power you get from a spot marked with a hundred dead witches."

"Hmm," Stefan agreed. "We just need to find it."

"Well, then let's get moving." Claire moved the empty box of journals to the ground and grabbed a pile of journals that were assigned to a year. "I've got 1864."

* * *

_"I'm in the Salvatore house," _Luka Martin told his father as he looked around, nothing but an astral projection as a result of the spell they were performing that would double-cross their new vampire friends. _"Elijah's body must be here._"

He stepped forward, unnoticed by any of the three vampires in the room. In his head, he heard his father's voice. _"What do you see?" _

_"Elena, Damon, and Claire. They're reading." _

_"Good. If Elijah's there, you'll sense him. Stay focused." _

Luka couldn't help but feel that there was something off about the way Elena, Damon, and Claire were sitting in the parlor, but with his father's words, he turned and continued down the hallway where he felt Elijah's presence drawing him closer. Meanwhile, Damon, Claire, and Katherine sat in the parlor in silence, Damon laying on the couch horizontally and Katherine sitting at the chair by his head. Claire was sitting on the couch across from the longer one, observing as Katherine put down her book and moved towards Damon out of the corner of her eye.

Katherine walked over and put her elbow on Damon's shoulder, resting her head on her hand. She said nothing, so he chimed, "Can I help you?"

"I'm bored," she answered, her voice light and airy. All Damon did was let out a deep sigh. Claire was partially distracted by them, but she tried not to make it too obvious. Katherine reached forward, spotting something in her vision, and read a line from the journal Damon possessed in his hand. "'Emily Bennett was taken by the Council today. They kidnapped her from her home and took her to the same location her ancestors were burned a hundred years ago.' So Emily died on the site of the massacre, too...does it say where?"

She reached for it, but Damon snatched it out of her hands nonchalantly and spoke with a bitter tone. "Nope. You know this whole...friendly, cooperative thing?"

"Mmhmm..."

"I don't buy it."

She frowned and spoke in his ear with a low tone, "I have no reason to lie to you, Damon."

"Lie!" he hushed and turned back to his journal. Tired of repeating herself, Katherine straightened and sighed.

"I'm hungry."

"You're the unwanted houseguest. Go feed yourself."

With the blunt and disinterested statement, Katherine huffed and walked out of the room, unhappy to be ignored and treated the way they were treating her. She believed she didn't deserve it; however, the two who were left in the room after her departure were two of the biggest anti-Katherine supporters in Mystic Falls. When Katherine was gone to get herself some blood from the basement, without lifting her eyes, Claire spoke to Damon.

"You do know I was sitting right here the entire time, right?" she asked, flipping the page in her journal. Damon scoffed and did the same.

"Is there a reason I had to be _extra _aware of it?"

"'I have no reason to lie to you, Damon'," Claire quoted Katherine with the most seductive tone she could muster. Damon lifted his eyes and watched Claire laugh to herself. "I mean, I felt like I was watching the beginning of a very intense porno. It was disgusting."

Damon sighed and returned to the journal, where his eyes drifted across the page. "Just because you're the only one in this house not having sex doesn't mean you have to rain on everyone else's parade. Besides..." He raised his eyes just as Claire moved hers, "...my door is always open."

She scowled. "You think that just because I don't want to see you and my archenemy flirt ten feet away from me means that I'm going to strip down naked and jump into your bed? Please." Claire tossed her hair over her shoulder as both of them returned to looking at their reading material. "I've got much more self-worth than that."

Damon pulled himself to an upright position. "Well take you and your self-worth to get something to eat from the basement because I know when you're hungry and you can get pretty explicit." She looked up at him and he nodded without even consulting her eyes. "Yep. You know I'm right. Go ahead, I won't tell you I told you so."

With a heavy exhale, Claire lifted herself from the couch and put the journal down on the coffee table. As she moved out of the room, she could hear Damon mutter, "I told you so..."

She turned back around at him and slapped his head. He looked back at her as she left to the basement. When she got down to the cellar and went to the fridge, she realized that Katherine wasn't down at the cooler.

"Katherine?" she called out, confused.

"In...here!" Katherine gasped from farther inside the cellar. Claire walked past the cooler and towards the cage where they were keeping Elijah, only to find Katherine fighting to keep the dagger inside Elijah's chest.

Luka, unseen by the two vampires, struggled to relay to his father, "_Elena's...fighting me..." _

_"What's wrong?" _asked his father.

_"She's...stronger than me!" _

Jonas took a while to respond, but when he did, he said it in a hard and serious tone. _"That's because it's not Elena. It's Katherine Pierce. Luka, kill her." _

_"What?" _

_"She's a vampire! Find a stake and drive it through her heart!" _

"What the hell is going on?" Claire asked Katherine, looking around as if the doppelgänger was crazy. She probably was.

"Someone is trying to take this out!" Katherine grunted. Claire stepped forward to her side. Just as she did, Katherine felt the pressure be relieved from the stake and she looked around with wild eyes. This only made Claire more irritable towards the brunette.

"Someone? What the hell are you talking about, Katherine, there's no one—"

Suddenly, from behind Katherine, the wooden chair that had been situated in the corner of the room had come crashing down in bits and pieces. Katherine jumped and Claire's attention immediately went to the scene, where her eyes widened to the size of the moon as Katherine stood up from the floor and backed away, towards the other side of Elijah's head.

"There _is _someone here, Claire! There is!" Katherine snapped.

"Holy shit." Claire looked up at the entrance and shouted as loud as she could, "Damon!"

But before Damon could even hear Claire's exclamation, Claire watched as whatever invisible being was in their presence as it rushed forward and impaled Katherine right in the abdomen, causing the doppelgänger to stumble back, clutching the wooden stake in her hand. Claire flashed over to Katherine's side and moved her back to rest against the mountain of dirt against the left side of the cellar cage. Just as Damon had reached the threshold of the cage in response to Claire's call, he watched as she turned around at him, revealing Katherine's injury to his eyes. Katherine coughed up her own blood and choked as Damon ran over next to Claire, who gripped the stake in Katherine's chest and pulled it out.

Claire tossed the stake over to the floor as Damon asked hurriedly, "What happened?"

"I don't know!" she exclaimed frustratedly and turned back to Elijah's body. Her eyes observed what she assumed Katherine had seen before; the dagger was rising out of Elijah's chest almost as if by magic. "Damon, the dagger!"

"I can't...breathe..." Katherine choked out, calling Claire's attention back to her as Damon got up and moved for the flamethrower he'd been working with earlier in the morning trying to fry Elijah's body. Claire shook her head.

"I got the stake out, Katherine."

"I think there's..." Katherine swallowed hard, but blood foamed at her mouth, hindering her from continuing. Claire looked at Katherine's wound and realized that there was probably a splinter inside of it. The chair didn't break into even pieces.

"Oh, shit, there's more in your heart. Hold on," Claire instructed her as she tried to pick out the splinters she could see. But just after she got one of them out, she could see Katherine's face as she started to grey up, the veins in her neck becoming solid. Claire's eyes widened. "Oh, that's not good."

Just as she watched Katherine's near-demise, she heard the sound of fire behind her. However, she ignored it and rushed to get all the splinter's out of Katherine. Though it was unclear to her why she was actually helping Katherine when all she wanted was for her to die, she did it anyways. But she knew she wasn't going to make it. Suddenly, Katherine's hand gripped Claire's and forced it up to her mouth. Claire tried to get out of Katherine's grasp but it was too late. Katherine had already bitten into her wrist just as Claire was able to shove Katherine off of her and stand up.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Claire shouted at Katherine over the sound of the flames. Stefan and Amelia had joined them at this time, watching Damon as he fired at empty air.

"What are you doing?!" Stefan inquired, his voice loud.

"Shutting down a crazy ass psychic witch attack! Get over there and do something about it! Go!" Damon demanded. As he did, Amelia and Stefan both fled.

Claire watched with confused and frightened eyes as the grayness in Katherine's skin started to fade and the bloody wound on her chest began to heal as a result of her blood. Katherine had made all these claims to what her blood could do, but healing a vampire from the brink of their second death? She wouldn't have believed it if she saw it.

When Damon finally put the flamethrower down when he was certain that the witch attack was no longer a threat, he came to Claire's side and observed her astounded, boggled face as Claire stared at the recovering, breathless Katherine on the ground.

"What is it?" Damon looked between the two of them. "Someone tell me what's going on."

_Rex sanguis ex fortissimis. _The strongest blood comes from the King.

"I'll be damned," Claire murmured as she crossed her arms. Katherine looked up at her with cold, hard eyes. "The bitch actually told the truth for once."

* * *

"So everything you said was...true." The word tasted odd coming out of Claire's mouth as she sat on the couch across from Katherine, who was still recovering over Damon's blow that he delivered earlier for something that Claire was unaware of, but had a pretty good idea of what it was about. Katherine sipped at the blood bag in her hand without a word as Claire's hard blue eyes stared into her doe-like ones. "Everything about my blood, about turning Caroline, about that freaky doppelgänger of mine that ruined your life—"

"She wasn't a doppelgänger," Katherine interrupted, rolling her eyes.

"It was all true." Claire ignored her and leaned forward on her knees, processing the information. Her head was bowed as she took a moment, and when she had finished taking a deep breath, she flipped her hair over her head and looked at Katherine with exhausted eyes. "How can it be possible that the _one _thing I want you to be lying about is the one thing you're actually telling me the truth on?"

Katherine shrugged. "I work in mysterious ways."

Claire scoffed and leaned back on the couch, drumming her fingers on her knee. "If she wasn't a doppelgänger, what was she?"

"Look alike?" the brunette guessed. "Don't look at me. I'm only educated in doppelgänger lore."

"Then why are you so sure that she wasn't a doppelgänger?"

She could see Katherine's patience was wearing thin. "Because in order for her to be a doppelgänger, she would've had some kind of purpose. A magical purpose—like breaking the Sun and the Moon curse. All Tabitha ever had in her life was misery, she had no _purpose._"

Claire snorted. "Gee, thanks."

"It's the truth," Katherine shot. Things were quiet for a while, but when Katherine spotted Claire's eyes drift suspiciously to the staircase, she realized something. Katherine leaned forward and put the blood bag in her hand down for a moment. "Mm...you haven't told anyone about Tabitha, have you?" Claire looked at her with cold eyes again, but said nothing, which answered Katherine's question. "I wonder why that is. Maybe it's the fact that you don't want to accept that I have a valid reason for hating you because you look like the best friend who screwed me over?"

"I haven't told anyone about it because what does it matter?" Claire snapped. Katherine shrugged again, but it was more condescending than anything. "It's not like there's another me running around. I never had a kid, which means that I never continued the King line."

"But others have."

"Fine, but maybe it was just a freak of nature sort of thing," she suggested. "You know, they say that there are 7 people in the world that look like you. Maybe it had something to do with that so what's the point of getting all freaked out over a look-alike that was only around when _you _were a human?"

"I see your point." Katherine leaned back on the couch. "Go ahead, keep it from everyone. What do I care? It's not like I'm helping anyways, right?"

When silence reigned over the room, Claire crossed her arms tightly. "I'm sorry, if you wanted me to say something inspirational and kind here, you're gonna have to adjust your standards. You stole my blood so you wouldn't die and, since you're you, that makes me a little angry."

Katherine scowled. "You couldn't let me die even if you tried." Before Claire could respond, clearly protesting the statement, Katherine spoke out to the entire room, and Claire realized that Damon had come down the stairs. "Where are you going?"

"Luka Martin is dead. His father's going after Elena." Damon's eyes drifted from Katherine to Claire and he jerked his head to the door. "Let's go."

Claire nodded and got up from the couch, walking over to where Damon was. Damon passed Claire her jacket as Katherine finished her blood bag and stood from the couch. "I'm coming with you."

"Ha!" Claire laughed as she turned to the door and started to walk out. Just as she did with Damon right behind her, Katherine flashed over to the two of them with her hand on Damon's chest to stop him.

"Wait!"

"I don't need your help. I don't want it," Damon snapped bitterly.

"I know what we can do, Damon," Katherine strategized. Damon's eyebrows knotted as he was taken back at Katherine's willingness to help Elena. "You have to let me do it."

Damon and Claire exchanged a glance, but Katherine's sincerity had them intrigued.

* * *

Damon, Claire, Elena, and Amelia all stood in the Gilbert foyer waiting as Katherine and Stefan finished with Jonas upstairs. Elena was positioned by the post at the door, exhaling heavily as Damon paced in front of her and Claire and Amelia stood with their backs to the couch.

"How did you guys convince her to do this?" the human asked.

"We didn't," Damon responded simply. "It was actually _her_ idea."

Elena's eyes widened. "Wow. That's...not good."

"Nope." Claire crossed her arms. "Definitely not good. But it was our best option."

"Doppelgänger deception," Amelia muttered lightly. Claire snorted.

"Right."

"Everything's taken care of," Stefan announced as he and Katherine came down the stairs. Katherine sighed and gripped the vervain necklace around her collarbone tightly so she could pull it off.

"I'm guessing you're going to want this back," she assumed, holding the necklace out for Elena to take. She put her hand on her hip. "But your pretty little outfit is gonna need a good dry clean."

Heatedly, Elena stepped forward and snatched the necklace back from her doppelgänger. Katherine merely smiled, and with her head bowed, Elena told Stefan, "You're going to have to get her out of here before Jenna comes home."

Katherine's smile dropped. "Is that all you have to say to me?"

"This doesn't change the way I feel about you."

"I don't much like you, either, if we're going to be open. And frankly...I'd be happy to see you dead, but if we're gonna try to take on Klaus, we kinda need you to be alive. So I'm not a threat to you, Elena." Katherine looked at all the vampires in the room who were watching Katherine's do-gooder speech. "If any of you are going to believe anything, believe that."

* * *

Claire watched as Katherine frustratedly left Damon's room, bumping the blonde's shoulder as she left to find another place to sleep. Claire came up to the threshold of Damon's bedroom and observed the raven-haired vampire lying on his bed with the Gilbert journal open in his lap. Without looking up, he spoke to her.

"Do you need something?"

Claire didn't respond. She bit down on her lip as she contemplated what she wanted to do. She could turn, she could run, she could lie, or she could do what was on her mind. At the lack of response, Damon put the journal down on his nightstand with a sigh and looked up at Claire as she was waiting at the threshold, debating internally. His face changed as he watched her struggling expression and realized what she was thinking about. At last, Claire swallowed.

"When you said your door was always open..." She swallowed thickly. "Did you mean it?"

Damon hesitated, but eventually, he climbed out of his bed and flashed over to her, where she watched him as he took her inside and closed the door behind her.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Stefan will always cause problems lol especially in S3. Thanks for reviewing!

**RHatch89: **Thank you :)

**NicoleR85: **Thanks! They did! Though the next few episodes will be a little difficult for Damon to deal with just because he's really in love with her, he just doesn't want to tell her and blah, blah, blah, so just having sex for him is a big problem. But it'll work itself out eventually! Sorry the wait for this update was so long. Thanks for the review!

**Tvd2014: **That won't really be revealed until S5, believe it or not. I mean, it'll be touched on briefly but like how the doppelgängers weren't explained until S5, Claire's terrible luck won't be explained until S5 either when we get more into this whole thing with Tabitha and another character that will be introduced sometime in S3 during flashbacks. I wish it could've been weekly updates but I've been so distracted. Thanks for reviewing though!

**grapejuice101: **Thanks! Yep Klaus's arrival is only 2 episodes away! Here's the update. Thanks for the review!

**Tvd2014: **Lol I wish I could update 5 chapters in one week but my life is so hectic. Hope this update was worth it though. Thanks for reviewing!

**klandgraf2007:** Thanks! Yeah, I like to tell Damon and Stefan's story through Claire's eyes because she has a very particular lens because of everything that happened with Damon. Plus, I feel like it makes her character more relevant so she's not just sitting around doing nothing like Amelia basically...though Amelia should get a better storyline in S3 and an even better one in S4. A lot happened with Kat being out of the tomb. She really got to Claire. Anyways, thanks for reviewing!


	31. Know Thy Enemy

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Know Thy Enemy**

As the daylight broke over the horizon and lit up Damon's bedroom, Claire opened her eyes to find her golden hair sprayed across the white cotton pillow and her bare body wrapped beneath Damon's thin white sheets. For a moment, she was weary of her surroundings, but then...then she remembered.

Claire shot up in Damon's bed and snapped her head over to the dark-haired vampire beside her, his chest rising up and down in his slumber. The sheets on his bed pooled to his waist, leaving his muscular build open and exposed. With a hard kick, Claire managed to wake Damon up as she jumped out of bed, murmuring expletive after expletive.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Damon heard as he woke, startled by the sharp kick he felt in his calf. Somewhat groggily, he watched through slitted eyes as Claire practically fell of the bed, scrambling to get her clothes on. Damon wiped his dry mouth with his hand and groaned.

"Ugh, what time is it?"

"It's morning," Claire grumbled. He scoffed and plopped back down on the pillow.

"Great. Go back to sleep."

"Are you fucking insane?!" she whisper-hissed. Damon's eyes irritatedly opened to watch her as she slipped on her jeans over her undergarments. "I overslept, Damon! I slept in your bed! What if Stefan comes in here? What if he figures..._this_ out?"

Damon sighed. "Then maybe we can sleep in peace."

"Quit trying to be funny," she snapped. Hearing her abrasive tone, Damon was immediately put in a bad mood. He swung his naked legs off the side of the bed and walked over to the dresser, explicitly nude. Claire let out a huff. "You're a pain in my ass, you know that, right?"

Damon shot a smile at her as he pulled on a pair of boxers and grabbed a pair of jeans. "You know, would it really be that bad if little bro knew our dirty little secret? It's not like we're committing adultery anymore. You're divorced."

Claire walked over to Damon's dresser and grabbed a shirt of his as he spoke. He looked at her in confusion, but she disregarded him and slipped a button-down black shirt onto her frame. Surprisingly, it didn't look half-bad or out of place. She scoffed at his suggestion.

"That would require us to tell Stefan what the hell we're doing. Which would involve feelings and talking, two of the things that we agreed _never _to do." Just as she buttoned the last on top and tucked in the shirt under her jeans, she sighed and gave him a bittersweet smile. "And besides, you wouldn't want to ruin the fun, would you?"

Damon grinned at her cockily and stepped forward, still without a shirt. His scent filled her surroundings and he could tell she was immediately effected. "You know as well as I do that this will _always _be fun. For both of us."

His finger came up and twirled a piece of her blonde hair, and she shuddered. For a moment, she forgot what she'd been doing, but when she came up for air, she reached up and pushed his hand away, clasping her fingers around his sternly.

"Yeah. Sex fun, Damon. Sex. That's all we do." She dropped his hand and watched as he rolled his eyes and stepped past her to grab a shirt. Claire walked around him, her back facing the door. "I'm serious, okay? We can't tell Stefan. Not now, not ev—"

"Damon—!" Stefan bursted through the door, causing Claire to jump around immediately, frightened by the intrusion. Damon finished slipping his shirt over his head and looked to the door with wide eyes, looking at his brother as Claire stiffened tensely. Before Stefan could continue, Claire jumped in.

"H-Hey, Stefan, I was just—"

"I don't care," he said bluntly and barged in, looking at the two of them with urgency. "I just got a call from Elena. Guess who showed up at the Gilbert's?"

"Who?" Damon prompted.

"Isobel," Amelia chimed as she walked into the room, coming to Stefan's place in his brother's bedroom. She held up a phone in her hand and Claire recognized it as her own. Claire tilted her head in confusion, but her sister tossed it to her. "Check your messages, Claire. You left your phone in your room this morning. I answered one of Elena's calls. It looked urgent."

"Come on, let's go. We don't have time to break up whatever fight you two were probably having over...Claire's fashion choices." Stefan made a distasteful look and hurried out the door, Amelia on his tail, and Claire and Damon right after them. As they moved down the staircase, Claire spoke out to her friend.

"So...what happened, exactly?"

"Isobel just showed up at the front doorstep."

"What's she doing here?" asked Damon.

"I don't know. That's what I'm gonna go find out."

Stefan reached the bottom of the staircase and moved briskly to the door with Damon, Claire, and Amelia trailing behind him. Just as they stepped down into the hallway leading to the foyer, Katherine stepped out of the parlor with her ears hot from eavesdropping.

"I don't think you should tell her that I'm here," Katherine suggested lightly. Stefan knotted his eyebrows.

"What? Why?"

"It's better that she and John not know that I stayed in town after I got out of the tomb."

"You're the one in kahoots with them," Damon reminded her viciously. "You made a deal with John that almost got me killed."

Katherine, however guilty, covered up her shame with a justification of her cruel actions. "I did what I had to do to get out of the tomb. Now, I'm...reconsidering my alliance."

She turned with a cat-like smile glistening all over her face. Amelia crossed her arms and watched the brunette as she started to walk away from them before calling out, "Spill it, Kat. You know something we don't, don't you?"

The vampire reluctantly turned around. "I know that I want Klaus dead which puts me squarely on Team You. Besides, if you ever need me to swap places with Elena again, the less people who know that I'm here, the better." She turned to Stefan. "Think about it, Stefan. Come on, be smart."

"Appealing to Stefan won't help you one bit." Claire stepped forward as she grabbed her jacket from the coat rack by the hallway and walked towards the door. Katherine followed her movements carefully, noticing something strange about Claire that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Claire smiled vindictively. "I'm the one going over to Elena's house, which means that I'll probably be the one to see Isobel first. And if I see Isobel first, there's no guarantee that I won't rat you out _and _team up with her to kill you."

"Claire..." Stefan warned her, catching the blonde's eyes. She frowned.

"Oh, relax Stefan. There's no guarantee that I will, either." Claire moved towards the door while pointing at Stefan and Amelia. "Call Alaric and tell him that his wife just showed up on his girlfriend's doorstep. He'll have fun with that one. If you need me, text me. I'll be back soon."

"Hey, Claire!" Katherine shouted as Stefan and Amelia dispersed to call Alaric, Damon went for a glass of bourbon, and Claire was halfway out the door. She waited for a moment and watched as Katherine's lips turned up in a knowing smile. "Nice shirt."

Claire raised her eyebrows, confused, but when she looked down and remembered that it was Damon's shirt she was wearing, she looked back up at Katherine with a cold, hard look and slammed the door right behind her.

* * *

_"I can't find him anywhere,"_ Caroline complained over the phone to Claire as the blonde vampire moved up the stairs to Elena's bedroom carrying two coffees. She'd just been informed that Matt Donovan was aware of Caroline's vampire status because she had to feed him her blood and he walked out before she got a chance to compel him. _"He's not at home, he's not answering his phone..." _

Claire groaned. "Caroline, how could you let him go? Haven't I taught you better than that?"

_"My mom walked in! He just...took off! I didn't know what to do." _

"Even if you were walking at a normal human speed you would've been able to catch up with him, Caroline!" she snapped. After a second, realizing that she might've been a little too harsh, Claire sighed and shook her head. "Forget it. What's done is done. Did your mother hear anything you told him?"

_"No. She just thinks we're fighting. But he knows about me and he's freaking out about Vicki!" _

"Okay, Care? Take a deep breath. It's okay, shit like this happens all the time. The first thing you need to do is find him and calm him down." Claire stopped at the top of the staircase. "Is he still on vervain? Because you may need to compel him if he's that shaken up about things."

_"I slip it into his soda when he's at work, but I didn't get to last night, so it's out of his system." _

Claire continued to walk into Elena's room as she nodded. "Good. That's really good. So when you find him, you'll be able to compel him and we won't have to detox. Now where can you find him?"

Caroline hesitated as Claire noticed Elena sitting on the window seat in her room, and while Claire waited for Caroline's response, she passed Elena's coffee to her and grabbed her own, ditching the coffee tray on the bed. Finally, Caroline gasped. _"He has a catering shift at the Lockwood's today! I'm gonna try there." _

"You do that. Keep me posted," Claire ordered before hanging up the phone so Caroline could go find her lost boyfriend. With a sigh, she slipped her phone into her pocket and sat down to Elena while drinking her coffee. Elena let out a sigh as well.

"Ah, this is bad. Between Isobel and Jenna and now Matt..." She exhaled again. "This is disaster bad."

"Eh..." Claire shrugged. "Disaster bad would be the 1970 Bhola Cyclone. To think, I missed that sucker by two months to go to LA." She shuddered, but when she looked back at Elena, she found the young teenager staring at her with disbelief in her eyes. Claire shamefully took a sip of her coffee. "But...err, yeah. This situation is kind of like that...I guess?"

"Elena, can you come downstairs, please? I need to talk to you." Claire and Elena looked up to see John Gilbert standing at the door. Claire crossed her arms over her chest at her failed murderer while Elena scoffed and looked away from him.

"I have nothing to say to you," she responded briskly.

"Please. It's important." John looked over at Claire. "You too, Claire."

Claire narrowed her eyes at him, but after Elena gave it some thought, the teenager sighed and rose from her seat in agreement to go with him. Claire followed, only because Elena was agreeing to his ridiculous request. The three of them came down the stairs in a single-file line; Elena first, Claire second, and John last. It was only when Elena turned the corner of the staircase and walked to the kitchen where she saw the real reason John wanted her to come down.

Elena froze in her step seeing Isobel standing in her kitchen a few feet away. At a loss for words, Isobel spoke first. "I asked John for a do-over."

Elena spun around angrily. "You invited her in?"

"She has information about Klaus," John justified. "Please, just listen to her, okay?"

Claire and Elena were silent for a moment, but after looking between John and Isobel, Claire finally stepped forward with a hesitant nod. "You know what? Fine. You tell us what you know, we'll listen. But you cross the line, Isobel, and I will slaughter you without blinking. Fair enough?"

Isobel frowned, clearly not used to being threatened. Regardless, she agreed, and they all convened in the kitchen as Isobel told her story.

"Since I was last here, I've been doing everything possible to find Klaus," she explained to her daughter. "We knew our best chance was to find him before he could find you."

"Best chance of what, exactly?" Claire asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

"Keeping Elena alive," replied John.

"You don't get to talk, okay?" Elena jumped in, looking at her biological father with irritated, fed-up eyes. "Not after everything you've done."

Claire sighed and moved on from the father-daughter spat as she looked at Isobel. "Okay, so here's the big question: were you able to even find this mysterious Klaus?"

Isobel shook her head. "No. Nobody knows where he is, but there are these rumors that are flying around that a doppelgänger exists."

"Which means any vampire that wants to get in favor with Klaus will be lining up to capture you," John added. Claire looked over at him with confused eyes.

"Didn't your daughter just tell you to shut up? In case you didn't hear, I'm telling you again. Shut up, John." Her eyes roamed back and forth between John and Isobel. "You two idiots are telling us things we already know. Get to the good stuff."

"I'm not buying any of this," Elena chimed in, deterring Claire's pushing. The doppelgänger looked down at Isobel. "The last time you were here, you made it clear that you didn't give a damn about me. Now all of a sudden, I'm supposed to believe that you wanna help?"

"Isobel's been helping all along," John answered for the dark-haired vampire sitting beside him. Claire threw up her hands.

"What did I just say?"

With a cautious eye on Claire, John continued, "Klaus has been obsessed with finding Katherine for centuries. All it would take was any one of those 1864 tomb vampires to spread the word around that Katherine's still alive and it would bring him straight here to Mystic Falls, where you were bound to be discovered. So we killed them."

"And almost killed Claire and Damon in the process!" Elena argued. John shrugged.

"Yeah."

"And you wonder why I don't like you," Claire murmured, shaking her head. "Arrogant jackass."

"I have a safe house that I can take you to," Isobel began, standing up from her seat at the dining table and looking Elena directly in the eye. "The deed is in your name. No vampires can get in without your permission, not even me. Let me help you."

"You wanna help?" Elena started after a while, taking a firm step forward. Isobel looked at her with genuine eyes, but Elena didn't believe one second of it. "Then get the hell out of my house!"

Claire straightened, crossing her arms over her chest as she smiled. _Go Elena. _

* * *

Damon, Elena, Stefan, Amelia, and Claire all were sitting or standing in the Salvatore study, facing each other as they theorized. Elena was sitting on the couch by herself, Damon had his legs swung up on his armchair, and Stefan was sitting in his own lounger with Amelia poised on the arm of it. While Claire poured herself an early glass of alcohol, she listened while Elena expressed her concern.

"Do you really think that Isobel's telling the truth that word's gotten out about the doppelgänger?" she asked.

"I don't trust a word that comes out of that bitch's mouth," Claire mumbled as she walked around the couch and sat next to Elena, who sighed. "Oh, no offense."

"None taken," Elena grumbled.

"But I think we'd be stupid to ignore the warning," Stefan voiced, leaning forward to look at Claire. The blonde shrugged while she sipped her drink.

"Of course we'd be stupid to ignore the warning. But either way, this was bound to happen at some point with Elena's martyr tear." Claire rolled her eyes and Elena gave her a death stare, to which Claire frowned. "What? You know what you did, but it's okay. You'll live with it. We'll figure out a way to stop Klaus before he comes here. I'm sure there are a few vampires that I know that have some information about whether or not word of the doppelgänger is just a joke or a legitimate rumor. But as far as Isobel goes, everything she told us, we've already expected."

"Maybe Elena should just say in the house," Amelia suggested, looking around at her sister and the Salvatore boys. "So we can keep an eye on her, I mean."

Stefan shook his head. "No, that wouldn't work."

"Not really the safest place for vampire bait," Damon quipped, smirking at Elena, who immediately turned to him with a sour expression on her face. "How about we just stay at your house, sparky?"

This only made her more frustrated. "Is that the plan now? No one's gonna let me out of their sight for the rest of time?"

"Let me know when you come up with a better one."

She sighed. "Fine, then one of you four bodyguards are gonna have to come with me to the Lockwood luncheon."

"Ooh, can we go?" Amelia volunteered, sitting up straight while looking between Stefan and Elena. "I miss the Lockwood house. It was always so pretty. And I'm a sucker for town events."

Stefan shrugged. "If it's okay with Elena, we can join her."

"Yeah, it's fine." Elena nodded. Though it was weird knowing that her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend were going to accompany her to a Lockwood luncheon, she didn't really care. There were more important things on her mind than being jealous or feeling pity for herself that Stefan was with another woman.

"Not me," Damon chimed. "I have witch stuff to attend to with Bonnie. What do you say, sugar, wanna join me?"

"Witch stuff?" Claire repeated. He nodded. "Yeah, sure, I guess."

Elena shifted in her seat and leaned forward. "Does that mean that you're taking her to the—"

"Shh." Damon covered his lips with his finger, cutting off Elena from finishing her sentence just as Katherine sauntered into the room, uninvited.

"Don't get quiet on my account," the vampire scolded. Elena turned back at her, realizing why Damon had been so short. "If you have a plan to combat the impending vampire doom, please do tell." No one answered her. "Seriously, what is the plan to get us out of this mess, hmm? I delivered you a moonstone, a werewolf, and the dagger to lure and kill Klaus and right now...all you have is a moonstone. Or so you tell me."

"No, we have it," Damon assured her.

Katherine turned to him. "Where is it?"

"It's in a very safe place."

"I've been honest with you." They could all tell she was getting frustrated, which meant she was definitely hiding something. They didn't know what that something was, but they couldn't trust her regardless. "Time to return the favor."

Damon laughed bitterly. "Let me be honest with you. Don't mistake the fact that we haven't set you on fire in your sleep for trust."

"Fine." Katherine crossed her arms and turned on her heel to walk out. "Be that way."

* * *

"Is this the spot Emily Bennett was killed, too?" asked Jeremy as he, Damon, Claire, and Bonnie trekked through high tumbleweeds in the midday sun to the abandoned witch massacre site. Damon nodded at him.

"Founders thought it was poetic, burning her where the other witches were burned," he replied.

"How do you know where the witches were burned?" Bonnie inquired.

"Because I tried to save her. Emily was just my key to getting Katherine back before I knew what a nasty little bitch Katherine was."

Jeremy laughed as Claire sighed. "Preaching to the fucking choir, Damon. If only you figured it out sooner."

Damon looked over at her. "If I figured it out sooner, things would've probably been a lot different, wouldn't they?"

She noticed the gravity in his question, and therefore she looked over at him and cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe not..._all _that different."

They came to a slow a few yards away from the old, abandoned witch house in the middle of nowhere. It was almost in ruins and it didn't look like any magical forces were residing in the old, run-down residence. From behind Damon, Jeremy slowly questioned, "You...sure it's the right place?"

Damon pursed his lips but nodded. It looked a lot different than he remembered, but he was sure. Maybe a little uncertain, but sure.

Without another word, they walked up to the front door of the home and pushed open the entrance, Damon leading the way for them all. Damon looked around at the termite-ruined staircase and the moss growing everywhere on the doors and walls, as well as the spiderwebs surrounding every corner.

"This place is disgusting," Claire murmured to Damon as they walked forward. Behind them, there was a creak, and Jeremy nearly shouted like a little girl. Damon turned back with a small smirk on his lips and the teenager sighed.

"Come on..." he mumbled, embarrassed. Damon didn't say anything and turned back around, continuing to walk through the house waiting for some kind of assurance that the witches were still around. He stepped forward and looked through the cracked glass of a french door, but when he turned back to face Claire, Bonnie, and Jeremy and moved forward, he realized he couldn't move. He was in direct sunlight, his feet seemingly glued in place. After a grunt and multiple attempts to shake away the paralytic, he started to laugh.

"Whatever witchy prank you're playing, don't," Damon warned Bonnie in front of him. "It's not funny."

"I'm not doing anything..." Bonnie told him. He frowned.

"I can't move." She stared at him, confused, but right before their eyes, Damon's skin started burning. He wasn't able to get out of the way of the sunlight and his skin was starting to sizzle as his skin turned red. Through painful breaths, Damon breathed, "Ah! Oh, my ring's not working. Do something!"

"What the hell are you talking about, why...?" Claire stepped forward and waved her hand back and forth in front of the sunlight, but it wasn't harming her. Damon tried to stop the sun from hitting his face by putting his hand in front and he groaned loudly as he tried desperately to move to prevent himself from becoming burnt toast in the middle of the witch house. Bonnie focused intensely and finally was able to lift the spell off of Damon, causing him to fall down right into Claire's grasp as she led him from the sun into the darkness. Damon groaned, trying to recover from the pain, and as his skin healed, Bonnie shrugged lightly.

"I don't think the witches like you being here."

Jeremy looked around. "I guess this is the right place."

After standing up, his skin healed, Damon pointed to the door angrily. "I'm gonna go...wait outside."

Claire turned back to the strip of sunlight in the house and continued to wave her hand back and forth over it, but nothing was happening. Suddenly, she jumped when she heard Damon's voice snap loudly, "Clarissa! You're with me!"

"Jesus," she hissed before following Damon out of the house, leaving Jeremy and Bonnie to their bidding. Claire stepped out into the sun, following Damon a few feet away from the entrance to the witch house. "You must've really pissed off those witches."

Damon sighed. "No. I pissed off _one _witch. Emily Bennett. She worshipped you, on the other hand."

"She _liked _me," Claire corrected. "And Stefan. And Christopher. And—"

"I get the point," he snapped, cutting her off. Claire resisted the urge to laugh as she walked around him and fake pouted at his real one.

"Why so glum, sugarplum?"

"Sugarplum?"

The blonde crossed her arms. "Am I not allowed to give you nicknames or did you think that the only person who could make up decent nicknames around here is yourself?"

Damon stepped forward and uncrossed his arms. "There's a reason I'm the one who gives everyone nicknames and it's because I don't suck at it."

She shrugged. "Still didn't answer my question. What crawled up your ass? A little witch prank from Emily Bennett put you in a tantrum?"

He stared at her, recognizing the features of her beautiful face and realized: no. Emily wasn't the reason he was in a mood, it was because of Claire. It was always because of Claire, but this time it was different. It was because he was mad, maybe sad. They slept together and he didn't know what it meant and he didn't know if he could do it again without telling her the truth.

She realized the delay in his response, but before she could prompt him to answer again, he ignored her and turned his head around, calling into the witch house, "Wanna hurry it up in there?"

Claire rolled her eyes and walked around Damon as he turned. "Damon, I'm sure taking power from a creepy old witch massacre site is gonna take some time."

"Whatever." He walked forward towards the door and braced to go inside, but just as he moved to it, the door slammed shut on its own, sealing him out. Damon groaned. "Screw you too, Emily!" Damon's body turned as he moved to walk away and shouted through the door, "You know, you're all on your own in there."

He left, and with her mouth opened incredulously, Claire started after him, practically skipping to keep up with his pace. "Damon, you can't leave them here."

"Watch me." He turned to her. "They drove here themselves, didn't they? We're going back."

"I just don't think it's a good idea to leave two teenagers in a creepy witch house all alone—"

Before she could finish her statement, Damon heard a sharp ringing in his pocket, interrupting their conversation. Claire came to a stop beside him as he raised his eyebrows looking at the phone and picked it up hesitantly.

"Liz, what can I do for you?" Damon asked, facing Claire, who was also suspicious. They listened to Liz on the other line and realized exactly what was wrong.

* * *

Damon and Claire turned up at the Lockwood mansion where a flood of people were coming out of it being directed by Carol Lockwood to leave. They slipped past the guests leaving just as the last of them were gone and Carol closed the door. Liz looked up in relief to find the two vampire experts at her disposal.

"Hey," Damon began. "How is he?"

"He's dead," Liz answered. John Gilbert was lying on the ground, no breath sounds or a pulse with a big red mark on his neck. Damon bent down and examined his body as Carol and Liz stood above with Claire a few feet ahead of them and behind Damon. After checking his wound to make sure it was a supernatural death, Damon lifted John's hand and saw the Gilbert ring glistening on his finger and he dropped it, disappointed.

"He'll be fine in a couple hours," Damon assured them.

"What are you talking about?" Mrs. Lockwood hissed. "Damon, he's dead!"

"Well..." Damon rose from the floor and turned around. "Here's the thing—"

"That big clunky ring on John's finger, that's a Gilbert family heirloom that keeps a human from dying by the hands of a supernatural entity," Claire finished, summing it up quicker than Damon was able to begin. Carol and Liz blinked at her, confused.

"But he's not breathing," Carol protested. "He has no pulse!"

"He will be." Damon looked down at the dead body and grumbled, "Trust me."

He stepped around and grabbed John's hands while starting to drag his body out from the Lockwood foyer. While he did so, Claire turned at Liz and Carol with a sigh. "We'll need a cover story. Seizure, alcohol impairment, banana peel...whatever. Damon and I will take him back to the Salvatore house and wait until he wakes up. Tell your deputies it was a false alarm, Sheriff."

Claire followed Damon out of the back, and they both slipped back to the car with John's dead body on Damon's shoulder. They returned to the boarding house quickly, leaving John to wake up in the foyer. While Damon went to change his shirt, soaked with Gilbert blood, Claire was downstairs pouring herself a meal from the blood bag she'd fetched in the cellar. While she poured, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket, and so with her free hand she grabbed it and pulled it out.

"Claire speaking," she chimed.

_"Claire! It's me," _said Amelia, her voice choppy and breathless. Claire set down the blood bag and raised her eyebrows.

"Is...everything okay? I would've thought you and Stefan would be home by now with Elena."

_"N-No. Katherine took Elena and tricked me and Stefan. She snapped our necks and_—"

"Katherine has Elena?" Claire cut her off, forgetting the blood bag entirely and turning around sharply to listen to what her sister had to say. Amelia agreed on the other side of the line, but before Amelia was able to say something else, Claire shook her head and growled. "No. No, Katherine doesn't have Elena. Isobel does."

_"What?! Isobel? How?" _

"Because Katherine's a little _bitch_, that's how! Look, we'll come get you in a few minutes. I've got to go." She hung up the phone and shouted up the stairs, "Damon!"

She would've thought that he'd be more reluctant to come down, eventually leading to her having to go up and get him, but instead he came down instantly, almost stomping down the steps like he was in a hurry. When he stepped onto the last step while adjusting the new shirt he'd covered himself with, they both spoke at the same time.

"Isobel took Elena," said Claire as Damon breathed out, "Katherine took the moonstone."

Damon raised a deep, frustrated sigh. "Damn it!"

"Stefan and Amelia are still back at the Lockwood house."

"Let's go." Damon grabbed his jacket and tossed Claire hers, and they both hurried out the door without a single thought to the dead human lying in their foyer.

* * *

They'd looked everywhere for Elena. High, low, and everywhere in between. They searched the home Isobel was lodging in, but when it turned up empty, they kept searching. At last, Elena managed to get hold of a phone and she called Claire, who she told her location and all four vampires came to pick Elena up from a cemetery a few miles outside of town. They returned home at last, bringing Elena to the boarding house to recover after her long day. Unfortunately for Elena, Isobel had apparently committed suicide right in front of her daughter, leaving nothing behind of her other than her lapis lazuli necklace she had used as the weapon to self-destruct. Claire caught Elena staring at it as she sat in the parlor on a chair in a seemingly deep reflection.

Claire sighed. "I was never one for the necklaces. It just seems like this stupid stone would be too much to handle around your neck." Elena looked up at her as she sat down on the arm of the couch beside Elena's chair. "That's Isobel's, isn't it?"

The teenager nodded. "I never thought I would feel bad about her being dead, and yet..."

"She was your mother, Elena. No matter how evil she was...she was still your mother."

Elena took in a deep breath, knowing that most of that statement wasn't true. Her real mother didn't kill herself, her real mother died in a car that crashed on Wickery Bridge. Regardless, she knew Claire was also right; Isobel was her mother, biologically speaking. Which meant that she held some place in Elena's heart.

Clearing her throat, Elena moved on. "Why did they let me go?"

Claire shrugged. "Do I look like a crystal ball? I have no idea. But it's safe to assume that anything John told Isobel, Klaus knows. He knows you won't turn yourself into a vampire, he knows you have a merry band of vampires keeping you safe..."

"He knows I'm not gonna run," Elena concluded.

"Which is why we need to take some precautions, 'cause we got played. All of us," Damon announced as he sauntered into the room with Amelia and Stefan behind him. He set down a set of papers beside Elena and placed a pen on top as Stefan came to stand beside Claire and Amelia stayed by Damon's side.

"What's this?" she asked, confused.

"It's the deed to our house," Stefan answered. "It's in Zach's name. As soon as you sign it, it'll be in your name."

"You're giving me your house?"

"It was my idea." Amelia smiled as she sat down on the couch proudly. "Sort of. I figured, I was right this morning. The safest place for you is here...or, at least, it would be if this house was owned by a human. I thought about just compelling someone to stay at the house and be the one to invite people in, like Wanda at my house, but then Claire came up with the idea to just sign it over to you."

"Well it definitely wasn't Damon and Stefan's idea." Claire snorted as she looked at the two brothers. "We obviously have more intelligence than these two."

"Right on, sis." Amelia winked, and Claire smiled at her. Stefan scoffed.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Whatever. Anyways, this way, Elena, you can control who gets invited into the house and who doesn't."

"Although," Damon began, "I'll be _super _pissed if you lock me out."

Elena looked over at him and laughed lightly, earning a smile from Damon. Before she was able to accept their offer and sign the deed, they heard a gasp over in the foyer. Everyone looked back to see John Gilbert as he gasped his way back to life, only to be whisked off of his feet by Damon who was holding him up by his collar, barely allowing him to breath.

"I-I swear, I had no idea what she was gonna do," John pleaded. He looked over at Elena. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"

"Damon, let him go," Elena ordered. Damon looked over at her, confused, but Elena's face turned cold. "He and I need to talk."

* * *

"Hey, Bonnie said the spell worked," Damon told Stefan, Amelia, and Claire as he looked up from a text he received from the witch. "She's locked and loaded."

Stefan sighed as he passed Amelia a glass of bourbon and then passed one to his friend before bringing his own to his lips. "At least something went right today."

"The one thing that's gone right in weeks," Claire mumbled under her breath. "One thing's for sure is that Katherine isn't coming back. Good. I was about to set her on fire in her sleep."

Damon chuckled under his breath. "I thought you'd appreciate that comment earlier."

"Oh, I definitely did."

"Hmm..." Stefan hummed under his breath as he came to his own, isolated world realization. "Katherine has no idea that Bonnie's got her powers back." All of them nodded at him as he turned around cautiously. "And...Isobel had no idea what you and Jeremy took Bonnie to do today."

Stefan poured another drink and walked over to his brother, handing the dark-haired Salvatore a glass of bourbon as the two of them stood with impressed looks on their faces. Amelia straightened.

"Wait, I'm not following," she began, shaking her head.

"We're the only ones who know," Stefan answered her with a bright smile on his face. Damon smirked.

"That literally makes Bonnie our secret weapon." The two brothers toasted their glasses as they turned to the two blonde sisters across from them. Damon wasted no time in relishing in their realization. "Well, well. Looks like you two aren't the only ones who've got brains around here."

Claire and Amelia looked at each other before Claire turned back to Damon and shrugged. "That's...debatable. But you're right, Bonnie is our secret weapon...which..." She paused and downed the bourbon in her cup before dramatically smiling and finishing, "...calls for another round."

Amelia walked over to Stefan as Claire turned around and poured herself another drink. Damon took a moment or two but he finally swallowed the rest of his alcohol and walked over to Claire, where he set his cup in front of her and said, "Another round it is, then."

"Alcohol..." Claire sighed as she poured him another drink. "A vampire's least fatal vice." She picked up Damon's glass and extended it to him. He took it with grace and she grabbed her own to walk past him, but instead of completely leaving his side, she stopped short at his shoulder and spoke quietly. "My room. Midnight."

And then she left, set with her glass of alcohol and not leaving him to get the chance to say no. But he turned around and stared after her, watching her leave so swiftly, so elegantly, and no matter how much he wanted to tell her off, no matter how much he wanted to just get it over with, to tell her the truth...he just couldn't. He couldn't say no to her.

Damon slammed down what was left of the alcohol in his glass and poured himself another.

* * *

When Katherine woke, she was uncomfortable. Sore and uncomfortable. Whatever the bastard witch had done to her at Isobel's house had made her weak and she remembered every ounce of pain that came with what he did, and it hurt like a bitch. She made no sound, but merely turned her head to find that she was in someone's apartment. A few feet away from her, that same bastard witch was chanting a spell with his hands outreached over someone's head.

At the foot of the chair the mystery person was sitting in, there were two vases. One of them was full of blood and the other was empty. Obviously it was some kind of spell; a creepy one at that. Katherine lifted herself from the floor carefully and felt around her neck, instantly realizing that the necklace she had taken from Elena had been stolen off of her person. Confused, she watched as the witch finally stopped his chanting and backed away from the mystery person, who had risen in the chair. The witch bowed as if he were presenting to his king, but when Katherine had finally gotten up and had caused enough noise to catch the attention of whoever it was, she realized quickly that it was Alaric Saltzman.

"Alaric?" Katherine breathed, bewildered. She stumbled upright and as he walked towards her with a sickening smile, she decided to get the hell out of there. She fled, opening up the door about to flit out when she realized that she was stuck. The invisible barrier on the door prevented her from leaving, and more than that, it gave Alaric enough time to come up to her.

"Zdravei, Katerina," Alaric greeted with a grin, humming in approval under his breath. He extended his hands and reached up to touch Katherine's face. She realized they were cold, and she knew that even though it looked like Alaric in front of her, it wasn't. He captured her gaze with a psychopathic stare. "I have missed you."

Then it hit her. Then she realized.

"Klaus."

* * *

**Klaus is in Mystic Falls ready to wreak havoc! Christopher Fell returns in the next chapter and all hell's about to break loose. Sorry for the delay in the update. Finals, volunteering, and college touring kind of got in the way of things. Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**NicoleR85: **Thanks! It's coming soon...ish. They'll be making progress in the next chapter, but with Christopher's return, it'll things will definitely be going at lightning speed from now on. Thank you for the review! Apologies for the delay on the update.

**RHatch89: **Thanks!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Definitely intense.

**Tvd2014: **Sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Gangster hippie: **Thank you! Lol that's pretty hilarious. Thank you so much, that means a whole lot. No, it's not a bad thing lol it's a Damon/OC so I wouldn't blame you. Unfortunately he's coming back for a short while but there will definitely be a lot of progress between everyone. I'm glad you're enjoying!

**klandgraf2007: **They will definitely be going somewhere. Now that Damon knows he has feelings for her because Katherine broke his heart and he can finally see the truth, he won't be able to continue their agreement for long. Christopher will definitely bring some drama that'll mainly be in 2x19. Here's the chapter! Thanks for reviewing.

**Anna.B: **Aw thank you! Since Stefan and Amelia are together, I needed Elena to bond with someone in the group other than Stefan and Amelia and though Elena has a friendship thing with Damon, he did kill her brother so that was out of the question. Damon doesn't show how much he cares for her because it's different with them since they've known each other for over a century and he knows how she'd react and what to do and what not to do. But in the next few chapters he will be making his feelings somewhat clear. Stefan and Elena will go through some ups and downs, as will Stefan and Amelia. Well...you'll just have to wait and see about how they're gonna save Claire! Klaus and Claire will definitely be sort of the replacement for Klaus and Caroline but it will very different than Klaus and Caroline themselves. Anyways, like I said, you'll have to wait and see what happens at the ritual! Thank you for reviewing! Sorry for the delay in updating, but I hope you enjoyed!

**PuffCorn: **Here you go! Sorry about the wait! Thanks for reviewing.


	32. The Last Dance

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Last Dance**

Damon, Claire, Stefan, and Amelia all waited outside of the closed-door Salvatore boarding house as Elena finished up inside with the lawyer, taking the title for the brothers' family estate. Though it was extremely early in the morning, all four vampires were dressed and functional as they stood outside and waited to be invited back in.

"You really think Bonnie can take down Klaus?" Damon challenged them openly. Stefan shrugged.

"She said she could channel enough witches' power to kill him."

Claire made a reluctant sound. "Yeah...she _said _she could, but does that mean she really can? I mean, what if she tries and it doesn't work? Then we're really screwed."

"Elijah thought that it would work," Amelia chimed in with a claim to back her boyfriend's answer. "And he's an Original. If an Original thought it would work, I'm sure it does."

"But we don't know that for sure," Claire repeated. Her sister shot her a disapproving stare, causing the other blonde to frown. "Fine, Amelia. I'll stop being pessimistic."

The younger blonde changed her expression on a dime, smiling rather than staring. "Good. Thank you."

"Whatever."

Damon cut into the conversation, bringing them back to the topic at hand by raising a sigh deep in his chest and continuing, "We just need to find Klaus. If we find him, we can kill him. Can't Bonnie just do one of those witch tracking spells?"

"Nope." Stefan sighed and leaned back on the cobblestone facing the door. "Not without something that belongs to him. Believe me, I already asked."

Things went silent for a while until Amelia let out an unsure hum and looked at Claire. "Doesn't Elijah belong to Klaus though?"

Claire looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. "Belong to him? I don't think that's how it works..."

Amelia shrugged. "I mean, he's an Original. He's one of his henchmen, I guess. Shouldn't it be the same thing?"

Claire frowned. "You want to try tapping an undead-dead Original vampire to find his invincible Original brother? Go ahead. Have fun."

"I'm just saying..."

Damon and Stefan listened as Claire and Amelia went back and forth, disagreeing with each other's statements and ideas. While the two sisters were wrapped up in their own conversation, Damon sighed and quietly spoke to his brother, his words barely escaping a mumble from under his breath.

"Do you think he killed her?" Damon asked. Stefan glanced over at him.

"Katherine?" Damon turned his head, confirming Stefan's question. With his mouth in a hard line, Stefan nodded. "Probably."

Damon was quiet for a long time before he finally growled and turned his head from his brother awkwardly, "It's not like she didn't have it coming."

Stefan turned his head as well, both brothers growing nostalgic by the moment. "Yeah..."

Claire and Amelia stopped their arguing as Stefan and Damon finished their conversation and the front door of the Salvatore house swung open, Elena and the lawyer in front of the threshold. Elena gave the old lawyer a compassionate smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Henry." He grinned at her and they shook hands before he left the premises and Elena turned her back on all four vampires outside of the door, unable to walk inside. Suddenly, Elena stopped short, gasping and turning around with wide eyes. "I'm sorry. I completely forgot. Stefan, Amelia...would you like to come inside?"

"I would love to. Thank you," Stefan said to Elena, who smiled at him as Stefan and Amelia both crossed the threshold. Claire and Damon both stood on the outside, confused as Elena turned back at them with hard eyes. Claire scoffed, offended.

"Hold on a second...so your ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend can come inside the house but I'm stuck out here with Damon? How in the hell is that fair?!" Claire demanded. Elena crossed her arms.

"You have a habit of getting angry at me with my decisions, Claire." Her eyes flickered to Damon. "You, too."

Damon smirked bitterly. "What are we, twelve?"

Elena frowned at him. "One of us is. If I let the two of you in, do you promise to obey the owner of this house?"

Damon and Claire looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Elena and answering at the exact same moment, "No."

She groaned. "Seriously, guys. If we're gonna get through all of this, I need to know you're on my side. I need to know you're not going to do anything I don't want you to do because you think it's the right thing. We're doing things my way from now on. I call the shots. No lies, no secret agendas. Promise?"

Claire opened her mouth to protest, but Damon elbowed her in the stomach and gave Elena a charming smile. "Yes, Elena. Sure."

Elena grinned triumphantly and looked at Claire, who was pouting behind Damon as she tried to think of words to say that would get her inside the house without promising anything Elena had said. But seeing no other choice, Claire finally let out a deep sigh and growled, "Fine. Promise. Can we come inside now?"

She nodded and smiled. "Then please, come in."

Claire and Damon were both allowed to pass through the threshold, only greeting by their siblings' laughter. Damon scowled at them before going over to his decanter. "Shut up."

Stefan looked over Damon's shoulder once he passed and watched as Bonnie grabbed Elena's coat for her and the brunette put it over her shoulders with a smile on her face. Stefan stepped forward, his eyebrows knotted together in confusion.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To school."

"Huh?"

"No, no, no," Damon scolded behind his brother, looking at the young teenager with something that resembled anger. "We didn't create a safe house for you to leave it!"

"Yeah, guys, Klaus is out there. We know that," Stefan tried to reason with them. Elena shrugged at him.

"Right. But where? No one knows." All the vampires in the room shifted, clearly uncomfortable with her decision. Elena sighed and stepped forward. "Look, I really appreciate what all of you are doing. And...I'll be able to sleep at night knowing that I'll be safe here, but I'm not going to be a prisoner."

No one knew what to say to that. What were they supposed to say? The evil, genius doppelgänger had phrased it so perfectly that no one could refute her argument unless they wanted to look like the evil jailer holding his or her prisoner hostage. Stefan eventually decided not to say anything, as did Amelia, and while Claire was waiting for something to come to her, she listened as Damon clucked his tongue and cowardly gave in.

"Your way, Elena."

Claire's eyes flashed to him. The one person she could count on to be a dick and speak his mind had failed her. She turned back to Elena with wide eyes. "No! No, absolutely not! Look, forgive me if I don't feel like sending you out into a world where there's an evil ancient vampire out to kidnap you for a sacrifice in a centuries-old, utterly ridiculous curse!"

Elena raised a sigh deep in her stomach as Stefan, who was standing beside Claire, mumbled, "That sounded oddly maternal of you."

"I don't do maternal," Claire snapped at him. Stefan backed off, though his expression made it clear he thought she was deeply wrong. Elena gave Claire reassuring eyes as she nodded.

"I'll be fine. Promise."

"Don't worry, I'm ready," Bonnie chimed in, trying to make the vampires feel more comfortable. "If he shows his face, I can take him. I know how."

"The way I see it, next to Bonnie is the safest place I can be," Elena piped as they walked to the door. "Come on."

Claire scoffed and used her hand to slap Stefan in the stomach, at which point he realized the message and looked at Amelia, who also understood. Calling out to Elena and Bonnie, Stefan and Amelia jogged after them.

"Wait!" Stefan protested. "We're...coming. We're coming."

Stefan and Amelia left last, closing the door on their way out. Claire let out a worried sigh and turned her back on the door, where she watched as Damon poured himself a glass of early-morning bourbon from the decanter. She walked forward and opened her mouth to ask him for one, but she didn't need to. All it took was the sound of her footsteps towards him and he extended a glass to her, where she took it silently.

"I wouldn't worry," Damon assured her. "She'll be fine...she's with two vampires and a super-witch. There's no way he'll get to her."

"I hope you're right about that." She downed the alcohol in her glass and set it down with a hiss. "Okay. Okay, I'm done worrying. Take my mind off it."

She walked around the couch as Damon looked up from drinking his bourbon, watching as she kicked off her shoes on the parlor rug and started to unbutton her shirt. He nearly choked setting his glass down.

"Take your mind off...wait, what?"

"Come on, Damon, take my mind off it. Please. If there was ever a time that I need this, it's like...right now. So clothes off. Come on," she demanded, stripping off the white button-down, leaving her in black camisole she had underneath so her undergarments wouldn't show. Just as she was about to yank the black tank top over her head, Damon, who had been staring at her with pain and lust all at the same time, suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Um, you know what..." He picked up his alcohol glass and swallowed it whole. "I forgot...I have this...thing that Carol Lockwood wanted me to do this morning. Oh, wow, I'm, uh, really late. I've got to go."

"What?" Claire demanded as he jogged to the door. "What thing? Damon!"

"Sorry, Blondie, but I really have to go." He opened the door, hoping to get out before she said anything, but all he heard was a small scoff before she spoke again, optimistic.

"Fine, then. Later?" she prompted. Damon stopped cold at the threshold, looking back at Claire, who was standing in a defensive position with her arms crossed over her almost naked chest. Damon let out a heavy sigh, but he couldn't help it.

"Later," he promised before closing the door and stepping out into the light, only to go to the bar where he would drink and drink and drink until, maybe, what he was doing with her started to make some sort of sense.

* * *

Damon's plans to drink himself into oblivion didn't really work out so well. Stefan called for an emergency meeting at the boarding house and so he returned promptly, where he was filled in on what Claire had already been told by the group of four teenagers: Klaus made himself known to Elena, telling her he would be at the high school's '60s Decade Dance later in the evening. Upon hearing this information, Damon shrugged.

"So we go to the dance, we find him," he suggested lightly.

"Really?" Stefan prompted incredulously. "How are we going to do that? We don't even know what he looks like."

"Something tells me he's not going to be sixteen and pimply."

"He could be anywhere at any time. He compelled somebody at school!"

"Guess it's not as safe as you guys thought it was, huh?" Claire threw at Bonnie and Elena with a triumphant hum. She could see Elena get agitated, but before the young brunette could even think of a comeback, there was a knock on the door behind them. Everyone turned to see Alaric walk through the threshold of the Salvatore house, joining their group meeting.

"There you are!" Damon exclaimed.

"Sorry I'm late," Alaric apologized as he closed the door. Damon moved past it.

"Hey, I need you to put me and Claire down as chaperones at the dance tonight. Klaus made his first move."

"Okay...so we find him and then what?" Elena asked, getting exhausted with standing in the middle of her parlor without so much as an understanding of what should happen at the dance later. "What's our plan of attack?"

"Me," Bonnie said simply, turning to Elena. "I'm the plan. He has no idea how much power I can channel. If you can find him, I can kill him."

Mostly everyone bought Bonnie's dark tone, but Alaric started to laugh. "That's not gonna be that easy...I mean, he is the biggest, baddest vampire around."

"Alaric has a point," Damon agreed, "I mean...what if he—"

The dark-haired Salvatore stopped himself short and flew at Bonnie, attempting to attack her with the element of surprise. Instead, Bonnie held out her hand calmly and her magic, though barely at a fraction of its power, knocked him back all the way across the room without her having to bat an eye. Damon, unharmed, lifted himself from the mess she made as Stefan gave a look of approval and nodded.

"Well, I was impressed."

"It doesn't matter if he's an Original," Bonnie continued confidently. "I can take down anyone who comes at me. I can kill him, Elena. I know I can."

The witch looked up at her best friend reassuringly, and Elena didn't doubt for one second that her kick-ass supernatural best friend could pull it off.

She was just afraid of what would happen if she tried.

"Okay." Claire let out a deep sigh. "So I guess we're going to this Decade Dance thing. What is it, the '60s? I think I have some clothes from back then. I don't know, I'll have to check."

Stefan shrugged. "If not, there's always stuff in the hallway closet. Zach never liked to throw things out."

"Okay, well I'm gonna go..." said Alaric as he started to back out of the parlor. He pointed at Damon. "Uh, Damon, I'll make sure to put you and Claire down on the chaperone list."

"See you tonight, Ric!" Elena called out for him as he approached the door. But just as Alaric turned the knob and opened the front door to leave, he stopped short when he saw someone standing on the other side of the threshold, about to knock. It was someone he was not familiar with...someone Katherine didn't explicitly mention.

"Um..." Alaric trailed off. The man at the door gave him a half-smile.

"Hey, Ric. You're looking good."

"Thanks..." Alaric trailed off again, unsure of what to call the man before him.

"Ric, who is it?" Claire asked as she turned around and walked over to the door, which was partially covering who was outside waiting to be let in. As soon as Claire took control of the door and swung it open, her mouth practically dropped to the floor and her limbs froze.

Christopher gave his ex-wife a small smile. "Hi, Claire."

* * *

"What did you do?!" Claire practically screamed at Stefan as they reconvened in her bedroom. Stefan confessed that it was his doing that brought Christopher back to Mystic Falls to help with defeating Klaus, and therefore, Damon had Christopher put on the chaperone list and Amelia was graciously helping him rummage through Stefan's things for something he could wear. Stefan sighed heavily.

"I only did it because we need help to save Elena. And you, for that matter. That's why he wants to help."

Claire slapped her hands to her sides angrily. "Bringing back my ex-husband doesn't help anyone! He left me, Stefan! He left me! Which means...he left! He didn't want to come back. You asking him to come back to help save my life—which I am perfectly capable of handling on my own thank you—defeats the whole purpose of him leaving me!"

Stefan groaned. "Fine. Then I did it for Elena, okay? I brought him back so he could save Elena."

"Oh, really? Would you like that to be the explanation I tell Amelia because I'd be more than happy to relay that statement."

"Claire." Stefan let out a brisk breath and stared at her with hard eyes. "He left you, yes. But he's back now and he wants to help save both you _and _Elena. He wants to do it. No one forced him to get on a plane and come back here. So just try to play nice, please."

"He's my ex-husband!" Claire hissed as she crossed her arms. "Of course I'll 'play nice'! But that still doesn't excuse the fact that you brought him back here!"

As Stefan and Claire argued in her bedroom, Elena, Amelia, and Christopher hung around in Elena's new bedroom, picking through Stefan's things that were mixed up with Claire's and boxes from the Salvatore house. All of the vampires could hear Stefan and Claire arguing, but no one said anything about it. They were all mostly silent while Amelia helped Christopher's '60s outfit come together.

Elena, who had been digging through one of the boxes, mumbled, "The Salvatores are such packrats."

"Oh, that box isn't from the boarding house," Damon informed her as he waked into the room, fully dressed to impress in one of his late-sixties shirts and leather pants. "It's Claire's. Those are all her dresses from the '60s."

Elena looked up at him. "And how would you know? I thought the last time you saw each other before Mystic Falls was the '70s..."

"It was." Damon walked forward and tapped the box she was rummaging through. Elena looked at his finger and beneath it she saw an inscription on the box reading: _'60s dresses, CK_. Elena nodded her head once, understanding. "Right."

"Okay." As he walked away from her to make sure he looked good in the mirror, Elena turned around at him with two dresses in her hand. Damon looked at her through the mirror as she held up the two outfits. "What do you think? Twiggy or sexy hippie?"

"Sexy hippie." Damon made an approving expression. "Definitely sexy hippie."

She rolled her eyes. "You're only saying that because you like anything with the word 'sexy' in it."

Damon shrugged and turned around. "True. But I'm also saying it because I know Claire's probably gonna wear the other one."

From behind him, as she was fixing Christopher's cotton button-down, Amelia scoffed, "Claire? Twiggy? Please."

Damon smirked. "It's only Twiggy if it's on Elena. It's sexy if it's on Claire."

The elder Salvatore had no problem spewing out comments like that, even when Christopher was in the room. In fact, he did it _because _Christopher was in the room. If he were being honest, all he wanted to do was punch the guy for leaving. You don't give up an opportunity like that because some manipulative bitch played you like a violin. In Damon's mind, Christopher was the biggest loser of them all. It might've seemed cruel, but though they were friends back in 1864, they were far from best friends. Nothing close to it. He tolerated the guy, that was all. It was a family compromise.

And he could sense the annoyance coming from Christopher as he cleared his throat and tried, "Thought you hated her, Damon."

Without turning around, Damon grinned. "Oh, I do." He twisted and shot a smirk at Christopher. "But that doesn't mean she isn't gorgeous as hell."

"Are we ready to go in here?" a voice asked, and everyone looked to find Claire walking in with Stefan, both of them dressed for the dance already. All Stefan had on was a suit and tie that looked worn-down and probably was from the '60s, even though it looked modern. Claire was all dolled-up in a black and white gogo girl costume, and when she walked in with that question out of her mouth, she wasn't even paying attention to what they were saying before. All she saw was the fact that Elena and Amelia were both not dressed. "Hey! Chop, chop! We don't have all night, people! We've got a scary Original to kill!"

Elena held up the two dresses in her hand. "I can't decide what to wear."

Amelia shrugged at her sister. "I don't see anything I want to wear."

Claire sighed heavily. "All right. All the men in this room...get out." Stefan, Damon, and Christopher looked at her weirdly, and when they didn't respond within the first fifteen seconds, Claire shouted, "Anyone who has testicles, get out of the room! Now!"

Stefan and Christopher reluctantly obeyed, but before Damon left the room, he quipped, "Wait a second, shouldn't that mean you should be leaving, too—?"

She held up a hand at him and tried not to smile. "I...knew that was going to come out of your mouth sooner or later. Just go."

With another smirk, Damon obliged and left the room, where Claire was left to do her magic. She took the pink dress out of Elena's hand and tossed it to Amelia. "There. You wear the Twiggy dress, Elena wears the sexy hippie one. Go change."

With an impressed look, Amelia went to the bathroom in Elena's room to change into her costume as Elena, who wore a faltering smile on her face, turned around slowly and set the dress on her desk. Claire seemed to notice the change in atmosphere, and with her arms crossed, she stepped forward cautiously.

"You know, you can back out of this. No one will blame you."

Elena scoffed. "And what? Miss out on all the fun? We've got ex-husbands and evil Original vampires..." The room fell silent and, after a while, Elena turned around reluctantly and looked at Claire with a sigh. "All this time spent worry about Klaus...I think I convinced myself that he's not real."

"But he is," Claire began softly.

"But he is," Elena agreed. "And not only is he after me, he's after you, too. I think we've all...seem to have forgotten that part."

Elena scoffed and put the dress down beside her as Claire laughed and shook her head. "Trust me, Elena. No one's forgotten. But tonight, all of that ends. Tonight, this bastard dies." The two were staring at each other for a while before Claire reached forward and gave Elena a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "Now get changed, sexy hippie. Wouldn't want to be late!"

* * *

The second they entered the gymnasium at Mystic Falls High, it was already like there was something wrong. Dana, the girl that had given the message from Klaus to Elena, was up on the stage, initiating a clap for the entire crowd. Stefan, Christopher, Elena, Amelia, Bonnie, Jeremy, Damon, and Claire stopped in the middle of the dance floor as they listened to Dana's amplified voice on the microphone.

"We have a special shout-out tonight. This is for Elena." All of the vampires and the one human looked up, immediately on high alert. They waited as Dana smiled at them in the crowd. "From Klaus."

A song started to play as the crowd erupted in applause and then started to dance. After a few seconds went by and the applause died down, Damon stepped around to face all of them.

"That was a lame cheap-shot. He's just trying to bait us!"

Elena looked around the crowd and shook her head. "I know everyone here."

"Maybe he's not here," Stefan suggested darkly. "He just wants us to _believe _he is."

Damon sighed. "It's a party, people! Blend! Let him come to us."

"Good idea," Bonnie added as she pulled Jeremy's hand from behind her. The young Gilbert groaned softly.

"No, no, no...I really don't feel like dancing."

"Too bad."

"There's Ric," Damon informed as he spotted Alaric in the crowd surrounded by a bunch of teenagers. He nodded to the teacher before informing the rest of the vampires around him, "I'll be back."

As Damon sauntered off into the crowd, Stefan turned to Claire and sighed. "So...do you think I can make it up to you if I ask you to dance?"

Claire shrugged. "It's a start." But with a small smile, she looked up at him and he grabbed her hand to pull her out to the dance floor. When they were gone, Christopher turned to Elena beside him and extended his hand.

"Would you like to dance, Elena?" Christopher asked with a hint of a smile on his face, trying to cheer her up from the scare caused by Klaus earlier. Elena, though nervous, nodded and he took her out onto the dance floor as well, leaving Amelia alone. She huffed and looked around, bored, but then with a shrug, she turned and went to go get herself some punch.

"I am sorry that bringing him back here upset you," Stefan told Claire over the music as they swung back and forth to the slow and upbeat song playing over the speakers. She shrugged.

"Yeah...I'm over it. I just wanted to dance." She spun herself under his arm and laughed, causing Stefan to roll his eyes. "You remember the '60s? Oh, God...your hair. You burned all the pictures from that time, too! Damn. I wish I had one so I could show your brother. He'd get a kick out of it."

"Evil!" Stefan claimed, widening his eyes at her. Claire nearly cackled at him. "Hey, but if I remember correctly, you didn't look so hot yourself, either!"

"I always look hot!" she corrected him. Stefan gave her a look, almost telling her the opposite. Removing one of her hands from his, she slapped his arm. "I didn't look ugly in the '60s! I had very pretty braids!"

"Hippie braids," Stefan reminded her. Claire was about to say something in return before she spotted Caroline and Matt across the room, entering the dance with Caroline in a First Lady costume and Matt in a JFK one. How fitting. However, she gasped realizing that there was something she forgot to do. Stefan looked back and spotted Caroline and Matt but turned around at Claire with a shrug. "What? What is it?"

"I completely forgot to tell Caroline what's happening tonight! I have to tell her!" Claire told him, slapping herself on the forehead even as she kept to the upbeat music. Stefan nodded at her.

"Don't worry, I'm on it," he promised. She was too focused on Caroline and Matt to notice Stefan's head nod to someone else, and taking Claire's hand, Stefan spun her around, confusing her for a brief moment before she ended up in Damon's arms. The moment she crashed into him, Damon took them for a whirl.

"How you doin'?" Damon asked, a smirk sliding right onto his cocky face. He released her from his grasp as she sighed.

"I'm kind of a mess, actually. You?"

"Cool as a cucumber."

"Of course you are."

"Come on." Damon groaned. "Remember the last decade dance? The vampires were all 'ahhh!' and Elena was all 'ahhh!' and you were all...kickass and stuff."

"Kickass and stuff?" Claire repeated, nearly bursting out into laughter. Damon grinned at her as she shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I was pretty kickass. And we won."

"Yes! We did." Damon grabbed her wrists and yanked her closer to him, just close enough so that his lips fell shy of hers and her hands were resting on his warm chest. Her breathing was slow, and he barely even realized how close he was until the words escaped his mouth. In an attempt to cover up the sudden shift in moods, he held her hand while he spun her outwards and back into him, this time so that her back was against the rest of his body. Claire, though she didn't know why, managed to smile a bit.

"You know..." she trailed off. Damon hummed as he swayed them back and forth and waited for her to finish her statement. "I know we've danced before...ages ago and everything...but you're surprisingly not bad at this."

Damon smirked and whispered against her temple, "I've got moves even you've never seen."

"Oh, really?"

"Mmhmm," Damon agreed before spinning her back out and collapsing her into him the right way, momentum forcing her hands to clasp around his neck as he kept them moving at the tempo of the song. For a few moments, he watched her smile, but after those wonderful moments, he leaned in closer to her ear and whispered, "We need to talk. It's about Bonnie."

Without moving, while they remained swaying back and forth, Claire whispered into his ear, "What's wrong?"

"I overheard her and Jeremy talking. I think that maybe, if she uses all the juice those dead witches gave her when she liked herself to the massacre site, she...doesn't exactly have the best chances at survival," Damon said slowly. Suddenly, Claire pulled back, staring into his eyes with wild ones of her own.

"What?"

"Shh!" Damon hissed at her, grabbing her waist and pulling her closer to him so that his lips were at her ear again. "We don't know who's listening."

Claire shook her head. "I don't understand. Why would she do this? Why wouldn't she tell anybody? She can't do this! Elena wouldn't let her if she..." Claire trailed off, answering her own questions, and finally let out a sigh. "Elena wouldn't let her do this if she knew how risky it was. That's why she's keeping it a secret."

"Bingo," Damon agreed, but let out a soft sigh. "But I'm not sure how much of it is true."

Claire finally pulled away as she saw Bonnie walking through the crowd, about to pass her and Damon. "Well, you're about to find out. Bonnie!" Claire exclaimed as she pulled away from Damon and stopped the witch in her tracks. "Damon needs a dance partner. I'm gonna check on Elena."

Without waiting for a protest from either one of them, Claire disappeared into the crowd to find Elena. As it turned out, Christopher and Elena were on the dance floor, laughing as they moved to the turned upbeat song that blasted on the speakers above them. The second they saw Claire, their laughter died down just a little bit.

"Hey," Claire started as she walked over to them. They stopped dancing to talk with her. "You doing okay, Elena?"

"Yeah...I'm fine." Elena let out a deep breath. "Nervous. Anxious. But fine. Your...err, ex-husband is good company, I guess."

Claire plastered a bitter smile on her face. "Well, at least he's good for one thing."

Christopher tensed at the sour comment and Elena, who was feeling immediately awkward standing next to the strained divorced couple, jerked her thumb into the crowd and cleared her throat. "So...um, I'm gonna go find Jeremy, then. Okay? O...okay."

The teenager nearly ran like a bat out of hell, desperate to avoid the tense conversation she could feel coming from a mile away. As soon as Elena left, the first words escaped Christopher's mouth as he stepped forward.

"Claire, we're going to have to talk at some—"

"Don't," Claire snapped, turning to him and holding up a frustrated hand. "Don't talk to me, okay? I don't want you here. I didn't bring you here, _Stefan _did. I didn't even know you were coming and, to be honest, if I had known, you would definitely not be here right now. So I don't want to talk to you."

But before she could get away, he stepped in front of her and blocked her exit strategy. "Look, Claire, I'm sorry. The things I said to you...they were uncalled for and...and mean but I didn't mean to hurt you. I needed some space."

"Space?" Claire nearly laughed. "Space? All I wanted was space! When I asked for space, we took space! You up and divorced me, Christopher! You left. So do me a favor and just...do what you do best. Just leave. I can handle myself and I can handle Elena. What I can't handle is...you."

With a frustrated scoff, Claire walked around Christopher and pushed herself through the crowd to get as far away from him as possible.

* * *

When she finally was able to make it out of the maze of crazy '60s teenagers, she found Bonnie standing at a table and watching Damon from afar. Claire walked over to her, trying to look back and see what she was looking at, and when she was right in Bonnie's line of view, she could see it. Damon Salvatore getting his '60s on with a bunch of high school teenage girls. Again.

"Really?" Claire leaned against the table as she exhaled dramatically and Bonnie looked back at her with a smile. "That's just so _sad. _This is the second time I've seen him inappropriately dancing with jailbait."

Bonnie shrugged. "He's having fun. I think."

"Still doesn't make groping underage girls okay."

The witch chuckled under her breath, but their laughter was put to an end as Elena rushed over to Bonnie, immediately grabbing her arm with intensity and fire in her eyes as she demanded, "I need to talk to you."

Bonnie and Claire looked at each other, and Claire glanced out into the crowd to see Damon eyeing them suspiciously. Bonnie left with Elena dragging her by the arm, and there was nothing Claire could do to stop it. Claire watched Stefan approach Damon with as much anger as Elena went to Bonnie with, and before she knew it, Claire turned to find Ric coming at her with great urgency. Once he reached her, Claire let out a soft groan.

"Ugh. Ric, please don't tell me you're here to scold me about the whole Bonnie thing. I didn't tell Elena because—"

"I'm not here to talk about Bonnie," Ric breathed out, shaking his head. Claire straightened as he choked out, "Jeremy's in danger. I think it's Klaus. Where's Elena?"

"S-She's with Bonnie...I..." Claire removed herself from leaning on the table and jerked her head to the side while beginning to run in the direction Bonnie and Elena went. "Come on, they went this way."

Alaric and Claire walked briskly until they were outside and they spotted Bonnie and Elena arguing on the front lawn of the school. When they saw the two teenagers, Ric and Claire broke out into a sprint until they finally reached them.

"Elena!" Ric shouted. She looked up at him.

"What is it?"

"He has Jeremy," Alaric told them. Bonnie and Elena's eyes widened to the size of the moon.

"What?!" they both exclaimed together. He nodded.

"Yeah, Klaus has Jeremy. Come on!" he urged them, causing Bonnie, Claire, and Elena to take off with the vampire slayer, who led them back into the school, this time through another door. Alaric looked around suspiciously, making sure that no one was following them. He closed the door after ushering the three inside and briskly started to walk, getting as far away from the door as possible. Elena and Bonnie struggled to keep up with his pace.

"Where are you taking us?" Elena breathed out through her shallow breaths.

"Just...a little further," he promised. But she looked around, a dark feeling in the pits of her stomach.

"Something's not right." Her eyes drifted up to Claire, who came to a stop by a row of lockers and looked around, shaking her head. Elena stopped as well, watching as Claire's eyes slowly drifted up to warn her that they were not in a safe environment.

"Where's Jeremy?" Bonnie demanded, walking a little further before falling short when Alaric finally slowed. They waited and listened as his breaths turned into laughed, which turned into a vicious chuckle and a sigh of relief.

"I just had to get away from that dance! The sixties...ugh," Alaric scoffed as he turned around to face the three of them. "Not my decade. I mean, whose call was that, anyways? I much prefer the twenties! The style, the parties, the jazz." His eyes flickered across the three of them before drifting to Claire and tilting his head. "Say, Clarissa, did you enjoy the twenties?"

She swallowed thickly. "Wasn't all it was cracked up to be."

He shrugged. "I beg to differ."

"Alaric..." Elena trailed off, watching as he sauntered forward at a slow, predator-like pace, "...are you on vervain?"

The man before them, clearly not the sane Alaric they knew, stopped. "Now why would you ask me that question, Elena?"

Elena took a step back, the wheels in her mind turning as she tried to come to a conclusion and come to it fast. "He's being compelled."

"Nope!" Alaric bellowed. "Try again."

"What's going on?" Bonnie demanded, stepping in front of Elena as to protect her. Claire stepped forward, nearly a half of a step in front of Bonnie.

"Alaric, so help me God...I love you and everything, but I will kick your skinny little ass if—"

He groaned, unimpressed. "Okay, I'll give you a hint. I am _not _Alaric."

It took her a while. It took Bonnie and Claire longer than it took her. Elena's eyes opened even wider as she let out a small squeak.

"Klaus."

"Surprise!" he exclaimed, a smile spreading over his face like a disease. Elena backed up, taking a deep breath.

"Oh, no. No, it's not possible."

"Just relax, Elena. I'm not here to hurt you. You're not on my hit list...tonight," he admitted. But by now, he had gotten so close, he was just about three steps away from Claire, who was a hair in front of Bonnie, who was about ten feet in front of Elena. Klaus's eyes settled upon Claire once more. "_Rex sanguis ex fortissimis." _

Claire drew in a deep inhale. "The strongest blood must come from the King."

"Correct, dear," he praised, pulling his hands together for a brisk clap. "You know you're stuff. I'm impressed. Then you also know that you, lovely Clarissa, are also not on my hit list for tonight. Step aside, please."

"Make me," she growled. Alaric sighed heavily before striking at her, barely lifting a finger as he threw her so hard she hit the lockers and dented them all. Elena gasped at the sudden movement and Claire lifted herself from the floor, although weak. Alaric looked at her in pity.

"The strongest blood might come from the King, but apparently you don't know how to use that strength." Alaric's eyes lifted and he locked eyes with the witch, the one he really wanted. "Unfortunately for you, witch...you're the one who is on my hit list tonight."

Then he lunged, and at the sudden movement, Bonnie repeated the same thing she had done to Damon on the possessed history teacher in front of her; only this time, it was twice the power. He recovered quickly however, stumbling back to his feet. Claire was already upright, adding an extra layer of protection between Elena and Bonnie as the human seemingly recovered from a bone-breaking throw.

"Now, did I mention that I know a witch?" Alaric said softly. "You're gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that!"

He lunged again, and so Bonnie did as told. She forced her hand forward and Alaric went flying, right into the trophy case at the end of the hallway. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor, but all they could hear was the sick sound of Alaric's laughter.

"By all means...fire away! If you kill this body, I'll just get a new one. Maybe Jeremy..." he added. Bonnie's voice nearly trembled as she spoke out to the two behind her.

"Go. Run!" Bonnie demanded, and Elena, Claire, and Bonnie all took off into a sprint into the next hallway. Before Alaric could get the chance to follow them, Bonnie sealed the doors shut with her magic, but then someone else came running out through another door from the hallway that led to the main gym. Damon came to a stop when he saw them all short of breath.

"What happened?" he asked, looking over at Claire, who was nearly trembling.

"Klaus is Alaric—um, Alaric is Klaus, I mean. I-I don't know, but Klaus is in Alaric's body and he's trying to kill Bonnie!"

Damon shook his head at her. "What?"

"Like he's possessing it or something," Bonnie tried. Damon didn't have time to try and wrap his head around it. He turned and looked at Elena.

"Go find Stefan, Christopher, and Amelia. Now."

"Okay."

"Now!" he urged, causing Elena to run out of the door he came from to go find the other vampires. When she was gone, Damon turned back to Bonnie. "Can you kill him?"

"He's got some kind of protection spell on him," Bonnie answered unsurely. Damon scowled at her.

"You have the power of one hundred witches. Break it!"

"I'm trying! But if I kill Alaric, he'll just possess someone else!" she reasoned. "He knows I have my power, Damon! He's trying to kill me!"

"That's not gonna happen," Claire stated icily as she looked back and forth between Damon and Bonnie. "That is _not _going to happen! This bastard is not allowed to win! Damon, we need a goddamn plan!"

"I'm thinking!" he snapped at her as he stared at the floor, trying to come up with a solution. Finally, his eyes snapped up to meet the witch's waiting gaze. "You still willing to do whatever it takes to kill him?"

Bonnie didn't answer, but she didn't need to. It was clear: of course she would. It was Elena. If needed, she would die for her.

* * *

Stefan, Elena, Amelia, and Christopher came running down the high school hallways to the last place Elena saw Damon, Claire, and Bonnie. Through the doors that Bonnie had before sealed off, Damon and Claire walked calmly out of them to spot the rest of their band of heroes.

"There you are," Damon said calmly as Elena approached him, only a few feet away.

Through her gaping breaths, she asked, "What are you doing? W-Where's Bonnie?"

Damon and Claire snuck a glance at each other before Claire took a tentative step forward and cleared her throat. "Um, Elena...she's doing...Bonnie's doing what she has to do."

Elena's eyes swelled. "What?!"

"Where is she?" Stefan asked abruptly, stepping forward and facing his brother head-on. Damon's mouth turned down into a hard line.

"Stefan, let her do this—!"

"Damn it, Damon!" the younger brother shouted. "Where is she?!"

Claire jumped between the two brothers, shoving Damon back so she could face her friend. "Stefan, you need to calm down! Bonnie is doing what she has to do! She is facing Klaus because it is what she _has _to do!"

"You're letting her kill herself?" Amelia gasped, looking at Claire with something that resembled disgust. Claire looked back at her and, though she had no good response, attempted to remain as stern as she needed.

"There is no other way—!"

"There has to be another way, Claire! There's always another way!" Elena screamed at her before lunging forward, about to break out into a sprint to go down the hallway Damon came from. Before she could, Damon caught her by holding the tiny human's shoulders, but Elena struggled so badly it was becoming a challenge to keep her still. "Damon, let go of me!"

"You can't go down there," he growled at her.

"Yes, she can." Damon looked up to find Christopher as he walked around Stefan and grabbed Elena's hand, yanking her out of Damon's arm and pulling her with him down the deserted hallway while picking up their pace. Stefan and Amelia soon went as well, only after they gave Claire and Damon the dirtiest looks they could muster. When the two outcasted vampires were left in the hallway, they caught a worried gaze from each other. Regardless, they didn't speak. It was too risky to speak. All they did was calmly follow Elena, Christopher, Stefan, and Amelia down the hallway they came from, hearing Elena's pitiful sobs as they witnessed her kneeling beside Bonnie's dead body.

"Get her out of here," said the dark-haired Salvatore as he stood in the dark room, attracting attention to him and the blonde standing by his side. All of the vampires looked up with sorrowful, yet angry expressions. Regardless, Damon barreled on, "Claire and I will deal with the body."

Elena looked up, her eyes red from crying. "What do you mean 'deal with it'?"

"Sheriff can't know about this."

"The last thing we need in this town is another mysterious death in a mysterious crime scene..." Claire bent down next to Elena and Bonnie's corpse and reached out to touch the young teenager. "Elena, go home and get some rest—"

"This is Bonnie!" the doppelgänger shouted at her, flinching away. Claire retracted her rejected hand and looked up at the three extra vampires standing above Bonnie and staring down at them.

"Take her home so we can take care of this," the blonde said slowly, her words articulated perfectly and maneuvered to not sound as harsh as they normally would be.

Though unhappy about it, the three vampires knew it was the right call. Stefan walked over to Elena and grabbed her gently, lifting her up from the floor as she sobbed harder. Suddenly, Elena looked up from her sobbing and asked, "No. Jeremy. Oh my God, Jeremy! What about Jeremy?"

"I'll find him," Damon promised.

"No!" Elena whimpered as Stefan cautiously dragged her away from the scene, Amelia and Christopher following right behind them. Damon and Claire shared another glance before Damon looked down at the witch on the ground and, seeing her open eyes, waved his hand over them so that they closed.

"Let's get her out of here," Claire whispered softly. Damon looked up at her and nodded, just before pulling the young witch into his arms so he could transport her. They walked back to his car, where Damon set Bonnie in the trunk of the Camaro and walked around to step into the driver's seat. Just as he was about to climb in and sit with Claire, a voice rung out, calling his name.

"Damon!" Jeremy called as he jogged over to the vampire in the dead of night. "Hey, I got your message, I can't find anyone! Where's Elena? Where's Bonnie?"

Damon was hesitant, and at this, Jeremy's expression turned down. Gulping back a lump in his throat, Damon began, "We need to have a little talk."

* * *

When Damon and Claire returned home, they were barely allowed two seconds of silence before Elena jumped at them, lifting herself from the couch, setting down her tea that Stefan made, and throwing the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders onto the chair as she confronted the two vampires.

"What did you do with her?" Elena demanded.

Damon looked at Stefan, who was standing behind Elena. "Will you please calm her down?"

"Don't talk like I'm not standing right in front of you!" She held up a hand at Stefan as she held back her tears and tried to face the two vampires headstrong. Damon held up his hands carefully.

"Please. Calm. Down."

"You knew!" Elena turned to Claire, finished wasting time on Damon as she yelled at the person she really wanted to. "Didn't you? You knew that if she harnessed all that power that she would die, didn't you?"

"Elena—" the female vampire began, but she barely got a breath out before Elena interrupted her, practically screaming.

"Did you know, Claire?!"

"Yes!" Claire shouted, unable to stand it any longer. "Yes, Elena. Yes, I knew. Yes!"

Elena, anger rising inside of her, let out a disgusted scoff as she brought her hand up and, surprising Claire, managed to make her palm contact with the blonde's face so that, if she had been a regular human, there would be a bruising red mark down her left cheek. No one really knew it happened until a few seconds afterwards when Claire held her cheek, recovering from the slap, Elena's breath shook, and Damon tried to get Elena to listen to him.

"Elena...you need to listen to me and prepare for what I'm about to say," Damon pleaded with her, though he was about as angry as Claire was probably feeling.

"Shut up, Damon," Claire growled at him. Damon looked over at her and watched as she shoved him out of her way so that she was facing Elena head-on, her blue eyes flaming. "Elena, I knew that Bonnie would die if she used all her power. Damon knew and he told me. But she had to die. Klaus invading Alaric's body threw us all off our game. We were all fools! Bonnie wasn't prepared to take on a spell protecting Alaric's body _and _kill Klaus at the same time. She wasn't going to be able to do it, end of discussion! But Klaus wasn't going to stop until he knew she was dead, okay? He had to think she was dead—he had to see it for himself; he had to believe it! So she cast a spell, okay? A spell that would trick Klaus into thinking that she was dead but keep her alive so that she could kill him when he's in his own body and ready to fight. Bonnie is fine. And the next time you feel like you want to hit me, Elena..." Claire stepped closer, the rage pouring out of her like she was a waterfall, "..._don't_."

Without skipping a step, Claire turned around on her heel, brushed past Damon, and walked calmly upstairs to her room. Damon followed shortly after, feeling out of place standing around and watching Elena dry her tears because she learned Bonnie wasn't really dead. But as Damon left to go up to his room, Christopher ended up following him for some unknown reason, but the words just spilled out of his mouth like he'd known he was going to say them all along.

"Do you realize how risky a plan this was?" Christopher asked Damon as the dark-haired Salvatore came to a slow just before the staircase. Damon turned around and watched as the bronze-haired vampire approached him. "You have no idea how much you hurt her! You could've at least told us the plan so we could've told her sooner!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Damon scoffed. "I didn't realize you were the Elena expert now. Funny, don't you think? Considering you just waltzed back into your ex-wife's life because you felt like it?"

"I came to make sure Claire doesn't turn up dead," Christopher hissed at him. "I didn't just waltz back into her life because I felt like it. I will always love her."

"No, no." Damon shook his head immediately, shaking the words out of his ears. "No! You don't get to pretend like you were the one doing the saving tonight. _I _did what _I _had to do to make sure that she and Elena are both alive at the end of the day. You and my brother and his girlfriend can sit around and worry about collateral damage but Claire and I will be the ones to make sure that this sacrifice won't happen, not you! And I don't care how much you love her, either, because obviously you didn't love her enough. You left her in pieces. So do us all a favor and just get back to that, will you?"

With a superior scoff, Damon turned the corner of the staircase and walked up, refusing to hear another load of bullshit out of Christopher's mouth.

* * *

Claire changed out of her gogo girl costume the second she got upstairs after washing away the day's hard work. As she exited the bathroom, she let down her hair that had been in a bun for her shower and sighed heavily as she picked up the costume she had put down on her bed when she had stripped it off so that she could put it with the rest of the laundry. As she turned around from putting the dress away, she noticed Christopher tentatively walking into her bedroom, his hands in the pockets of his jeans and a fresh set of clothes on hm as well.

The moment she saw him, she stopped in her tracks. They were silent for a while, but at last, Claire sighed.

"I don't want to hear about how harsh I was to Elena. I was trying to help," she mumbled bitterly. Christopher slowly moved across her threshold and into her room, maintaining boundaries he had set for himself.

"I'm not here about Elena," he told her. "I'm here to tell you that I think it's best if I leave. You all seem to have it under control here."

Claire sighed. "Look, I know what I said earlier must've hurt you and I didn't mean to. You don't have to leave."

Christopher nodded. "I do. You're not the only one who wants me to go, Claire. And honestly, I think I should go, too. I didn't know what I was expecting when I came back here...I was just an idiot before. I gave up the woman I love because I was afraid to lose her, what kind of an idiot does that?"

"You weren't an idiot," she tried, stepping forward cautiously with a tremendous exhale. "Christopher, you had every right to want to leave. I just didn't want you to go because I thought I wanted this. I thought I wanted to be married but the truth is...I just can't do it."

The exes looked at each other, and only after Claire said what she wanted to say did she realize it might've hurt Christopher more than she expected it to. But before she could retract her statement, she watched as Christopher gave a tight, caught smile and nodded his head.

"To be honest, I don't think either of us ever really wanted to be married."

Claire let out a deep breath, almost relieved. She didn't really need to say anything to him, they both knew it was the truth. "So...are you still going to leave?"

He nodded. "I think it's what's best for all of us. I think I'll go back to Berlin."

"Berlin?" Claire repeated, surprised. With a nod, he gave her a quick smile and walked forward, kissing her forehead quickly before pulling away.

"Be careful, Claire."

With that said, he turned and began to walk out. But before he managed to get within a few steps to the door, Claire blurted out, "Are you happy? All that time...you've been spending overseas...Berlin...are you happy?"

She watched his back, waiting for him to turn around and answer her question. What she didn't expect is for him to turn around with a genuine smile on his face, something that she'd rarely ever seen. Slowly, he nodded.

"I've never been happier," he told her honestly. Claire smiled softly at him, but couldn't help but feel slightly hurt. Her eyes were distracted, which was why she didn't notice his smile slowly begin to fade as he realized the expression on hers. "Hey...Clarissa, I still love you, you know."

Claire looked up at him and, as she could feel he was about to leave, she slowly nodded up and down. "I know."

This time, when he went to leave, he left her room without stopping, leaving her to herself in the middle of the Salvatore bedroom. After taking in a deep sigh and collecting her thoughts, Claire opened her eyes to find Elena waiting at the threshold, her arms crossed seeming as if she were angry. When the blonde saw her teenage friend, the calmness that had come over her washed away like a wave while an unsettling frown took its place.

"Look, Elena, I'm not going to tell you again. Klaus needed to believe that Bonnie was dead so Damon and I did what we needed to do to make that happen. Your reaction had to be real. I'm not going to apologize for it," she snapped.

Elena uncrossed her arms and nodded. "I understand why you did what you did. Klaus was fooled and Bonnie's alive."

Claire shrugged. "Duplicity always works."

"But let's get one thing straight," Elena began as she sauntered into Claire's room uninvited, "Bonnie will not die for me, I will not let that happen."

"Elena—"

"I'm not finished. We're going to find another way to kill Klaus. But even if we don't, I refuse to use Bonnie to kill Klaus. Like I said, she will not die for me and I won't let her die for you, either. Are we clear?"

Claire crossed her arms and waited for Elena to be done with her demands. After a moment of silence passed, Claire shrugged. "You done now? Great. I never said I was gonna let Bonnie die for us. Trust me, that's the last thing I want. We will find another way, Elena, you can bet your ass on it. We're clear as crystal."

"Good," Elena agreed, surprised that it was easier than she thought it would be. "Look, I shouldn't have hit you."

"You think?"

"I'm sorry," she amended sincerely. Claire sighed.

"Apology accepted, Elena. Now go get some rest. If we're gonna find another way to kill Klaus, we're gonna need all the spare time we can get."

The brunette nodded. "Okay. Goodnight, Claire."

"Goodnight," she said softly and watched as Elena left the room. But again, right as Elena left, another came in. Damon leaned against the threshold and watched as Claire groaned. "What does this look like? A confession box? Get in here, Damon, and confess all your sins, why don't you?"

Damon grinned. "My sins would take too long to confess."

"True," she agreed as he walked into the room and closed her door.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine. Christopher's leaving and Elena apologized. The night's resolved and tomorrow will come." She paused. "Of course, then comes this creepy ritual thing in which I will be the vampire sacrifice and Elena will be the doppelgänger sacrifice and most likely Tyler, wherever he may be, will be the werewolf sacrifice—"

"Hold on," Damon interrupted her, scoffing and stepping towards her. "Who gave you the idea that I'm gonna let you be the vampire sacrifice?"

Claire scowled at him. "Not even you can stop Klaus from taking what he wants. We learned that the hard way today."

"I don't care if I have to sacrifice myself instead!" Damon snapped, causing Claire to release the frown on her face for a confused look as she jumped at the intensity of his tone. "You are not sacrificing yourself. If we don't find a way to save Elena, we have another option. She can turn into a vampire just like the rest of us but you? You're a vampire already. There are no second chances for us."

"We don't have a choice!" she argued.

"We have a choice," Damon countered, stepping so close to her they were practically inches apart. "And I choose you, Claire. I will always choose you."

They were silent. Claire understood the gravity of his statement, and it was making her feel more uncomfortable by the moment. She avoided looking at him as she whispered his name, trying not to feel what he was forcing her to. But despite the fact that when she spoke his name, nothing but pain surrounded it, Damon decided he'd had enough. He surged forward, his strong hands clasping the side of her face as he held her still so it was possible to kiss her as hard, as passionate as he wanted it to be. She kissed back for a split second, but when she realized what was happening, Claire used her hands underneath him to push him at arm's length, her hands on his chest as she looked up at him with heated eyes.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" she nearly shouted.

"Because I can't do it anymore," Damon grumbled. She straightened, confused. "I can't...pretend like all I want is sex from you. I can't do it anymore, Claire, I just can't. I'm done. I want it all; I want you, I want us, I want all of it. And if you don't want that, fine. But I can't keep doing this."

Speechless, that was the word. She was speechless. Words caught in her throat and as Damon took it as a sign that she didn't want any of the things he was asking for, he let his hands slip down from the sides of her face and he pushed her hands away from his chest as he backed out of the room and turned around to leave. But just as he did, he felt Claire's hand wrap around his elbow and yank him back, and suddenly she was kissing him. It was like a dream, like something he'd never imagined. She kissed him, throwing his arm around her back so that he could pull her as close as he wanted while she wrapped her arms around his neck. After a brief moment of head-spinning kissing between the two of them, Claire pulled back and leaned against his forehead.

"Why did I do that?" she breathed, opening her eyes a little wider so he could see the crisp clear color of them. "I don't know what I'm doing, Damon, but I just...I need this. But you know I can't give you everything you want, not now. You know I can't handle it."

"I'm not asking for everything," Damon told her sternly. "I just want to be able to kiss you. That's all."

"Just to kiss me?"

"For now."

She hesitated, but it was a no-brainer. She couldn't handle letting him go because, if he walked out of her room, there was a part of her he'd be taking with him. So she nodded, slowly but surely, and without answering, Damon just leaned forward and kissed her again. This time, they didn't stop to talk.

But unknown to them, the door was cracked open; it was the first mistake they'd made in years. And as a small glimmer of light shone out onto the hallway floor, it was just beyond the reach of the person who was standing outside of Claire's bedroom—Christopher. He had heard everything, seen some of it, and was leaning against the wall outside of her bedroom, his heart breaking in pieces whilst anger repaired it.

Without making a sound, he turned his head and walked back to his room to unpack his things. He wasn't leaving, not after what he just heard. He was staying, and he was going to make Claire and Damon answer to what they'd done.

* * *

Elena had ended up in the foyer after coming downstairs from talking with Claire, one thought and one thought only in her mind. She had to figure out a way to save Bonnie, and she knew that Claire, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia couldn't figure out what that way was. No one in her house had the knowledge to figure out what would save her best friend.

Well, that wasn't true. One person did. One...dead-ish person.

Elena made sure no one was around her when she stormed off silently into the basement, walking right up to the Salvatore cellar where they were keeping Elijah's body. Still looking around to make sure no one was behind her, Elena unlocked the door to the cellar and stepped inside, where she knelt down beside the grey, desiccated dead Original and put her hand on the handle of the dagger keeping him from waking up. With all of the strength she could muster, Elena began to yank the dagger out slowly until it came clean out. She looked down at Elijah, thinking over what she'd done, but she knew there was no other option.

"What the hell did you just do?"

Elena gasped, jumping up to find Amelia standing at the door of the cellar with a bag of blood in her hand and wild eyes. The two stared at each other, but Elena kept a firm grip on the dagger in her hand as they both stared down at Elijah, knowing that it wouldn't be long before he woke.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**HPuni101: **Thank you! Yep, Klaus is finally here and it's only gonna get better! Here's the update!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **As it stands right now, yes. Elena will still be the one to go into the 'sleep' but I'm not 100% sure so don't hold me to it. The story should continue into Season 7 as long as I don't get distracted with other things or feel that it's time the story gets put to an end. As for Christopher, he probably won't be going into the 'sleep' with Elena because even if it does get that far, though Elena's situation was tragic, he'll have a story line of his own, as will Claire and Damon at that point. Anyways, thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**RHatch89: **Thanks :)

**grapejuice101: **Thank you! Here's the chapter! I hope you liked it!

**liburnap: **Thanks! Here it is! Hope you enjoyed it!

**Anna.B: **Thanks! Damon and Claire are really going to be struggling through these last couple episodes with Christopher's interference and all the ritual nonsense that goes on but the chemistry they have will always be there. Stefan was just in a hurry and he's gotten so used to Damon and Claire's love/hate thing that he kind of just moves on and doesn't ask but in the next chapter there will definitely be a big Stefan/Claire friendship moment. Oh yeah, definitely, Claire will continue to be Elena's go-to person, but Season 3 will definitely be a hard strain on everyone's relationship with Claire. Bonnie and Claire will become more friendly towards the later seasons but Caroline and Claire will always have this special bond seeing as Claire's blood turned Caroline so that will never go away. Klaus and Claire's relationship will be interesting. Although it will initially be instant attraction, it'll definitely become something else and there will also be a little bit of a twist with other things going on between them. Honestly, I'm struggling with what to do with Amelia but in Season 3, I'm hoping somehow I'll be able to make her more independent. I know by the later seasons of the series she will definitely not follow Stefan around, mainly because by then their relationship will have many dents in them that takes time to fix. Anyways, thanks for reviewing! Here's the update!

**Tvd2014: **Here it is! He didn't exactly confront her with his feelings yet but it's a start. Thanks for the review!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **I would love to do that, too. Thanks for reviewing! Here's the update!


	33. Klaus

**Hello, everyone! I've been busy at a law program at Stanford for a few weeks but I've come back and felt like writing this story for some reason so I hope you all enjoy! Don't forget to leave a review!**

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Klaus**

"I can't believe you just did that!" Amelia nearly shouted as she argued with Elena, who was sitting on the floor of Elijah's jail cell with a disinterested look in her face. It had been hours since she'd seen Elena pull the dagger out of Elijah, but she just continued on and on. "Have you gone mental? Are you messing with us? Are you Katherine? There has to be some explanation that can justify why you would do that!"

Elena looked at Amelia with a frown. "I want answers. Did that justify enough for you? And shh, keep your voice down. Stefan might be able to hear you."

Amelia's eyes widened. "He better hear me! What kind of an idiot do you think you are?!"

Tired of arguing, Elena jumped up onto her feet and stared the vampire down angrily. "Amelia, don't you get it? Elijah has the answers to the questions that all of us are asking! He's seen Klaus before. He knows Klaus's weaknesses! He was the one who had the idea to get a witch to kill him in the first place! Maybe he has an idea that will save all of us!"

"We don't know that. This is one hell of a risk, Elena."

"We still haven't found a way to save Claire," she replied seriously, causing Amelia to immediately soften in her stance. "Look, I know you want to save your sister but...there is no way out of this for her. She's a vampire, Amelia, she has no other options. But maybe Elijah knows a way to get her out of it...t-to get someone else to be Klaus's vampire sacrifice, I don't know! I'm doing this so we can save everyone. Don't you want to save them, too? Claire, at the very least?"

Amelia stared at the human, processing her words with great suspicion and doubt. But as much as Amelia disagreed with the way she wanted to go about things, Elena happened to be right. Therefore, Elena could see the agreement starting to cloud her acquaintance's face just as they heard an extremely loud gasp from the floor, causing both of them, startled, to turn around and watch as Elijah wiggled on the floor, desperate for air. Elena rushed over to him, trying to hush the awakening vampire as she bent down and calmed him.

"Elijah!" Elena whispered. He panted for a few moments.

"Katerina!"

"No..." the doppelgänger trailed off, shaking her head. "Elijah, it's me. Elena."

"Oh, my God..." he whispered, his eyes stricken with fear. But soon after, he began to calm down and Elena relaxed. Then, surprising the two women in the room once more, Elijah abruptly rolled over on his stomach, causing Amelia to quickly reach down and pull Elena up from the floor by her elbows as they watched Elijah punch the sanded floor of the cellar and slowly stand. They thought he would attack, but instead he just gasped. "I-I can't...I can't breathe! What's happened to me?"

He toppled over as if something was physically restraining him. Elena shook her head, stammered words escaping her lips. Suddenly, Elijah flashed and ran right into the brick wall near the threshold of the door, and Amelia managed to get them both out of the way before Elijah ended up taking them with him when he slammed against the hard cement. When Amelia let go of her, Elena rushed over and tried to help Elijah up, but he simply began to pant more.

"I can't...I can't be in this house!" he gasped.

Elena's eyes widened. "You're not invited in."

"You need to get me out of here!"

But on the contrary, he slipped out of her arms, racing towards another wall in which he slammed against. Elena looked back at Amelia with shock all over her face and Amelia watched as Elijah fled up the stairs, causing them both to rush after him. For a moment, Elena's heart began to race as she realized she might've set the Original on the loose, but she luckily found him knelt over waiting at the doorstep of her home in the bright daylight.

She stiffened as she watched him give her a glare and the next thing she knew, he was at the threshold, stopped when he was forbidden to enter. She jolted just slightly, but she felt safer inside of the house knowing that he couldn't get to her. Elijah looked at her with narrowed eyes and slowly began to articulate words.

"What happened—?"

"Shh!" Elena cut him off, realizing that the rest of the vampires in the house could hear their conversation a lot better up on the first level than below. He waited as she whispered, "I'll tell you. Not here. Can I trust you?"

"Can I trust you?" he whispered, but it sounded more like a snarl. Elena took a moment, looking upstairs and realizing that what she was doing was going to piss everyone off, but she didn't care. She nodded slowly and looked back at Elijah, awaiting her answer. But he wasn't finished. He looked over at Amelia, who was giving him the death glare. With a curt nod, he ordered her to respond to the same question, but she just rolled her eyes, walked up to Elena, and yanked the dagger out of the human's hand with the blade pointed at the Original. He flinched for a moment, as if recoiling from what she would do, but Amelia bit her tongue and flipped the blade over so that the handle was to him. He took it reluctantly and let his eyes drift back up to her.

"Like you would've believed me if I said you could," she whispered quietly. Elijah gripped the dagger in his hand and looked up at Elena and Amelia, who were both waiting patiently for the next move.

* * *

It had felt like a dream. A good dream, but a dream nonetheless. When Damon came to after the little sleep he'd managed, his mind began to wonder whether or not what had happened to him was a dream or if it were real. His eyes opened slowly, as if to prolong the answer to his faded question, and it seemed to be a good choice. When Damon's eyes finally adjusted and he was able to see what was in front of him, he began to panic.

An empty bed. Tossed sheets. Naked Damon.

_Shit, _he thought to himself. _Tell me it wasn't a fucking dream._

Then, he took a second look. That second look proved that no, he wasn't in his bed. The tossed sheets weren't his. All his clothes had been dispensed on the floor as if someone had torn them off. Not a dream, he realized with a breath of relief. But, then, another question came to his mind.

_Where the hell is Claire? _

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty," Claire chimed as she kicked the door closed behind her, her hands already occupied bearing two cups of steaming hot coffee. Damon cocked an eyebrow seeing her cleaned and clothed to start the day, confused as to why she was in such a hurry. She sat down on his edge of the bed and waited as he sat up and grabbed the coffee, all with a suspicious look on his face.

"You're dressed," he noted. She smiled.

"Yes, that is typically what one does in the morning." He glared at her as she sipped some of her coffee and rose from the bed. "Oh, lighten up. I already gave you what you wanted last night, you don't expect me to give it to you in broad daylight, too, do you?"

"A man can hope," Damon muttered. Claire tried to hide her chuckle as she watched Damon set his coffee down and slip on his boxers. As Claire drank some more of her coffee and observed him, she tilted her head and sighed.

"Last night was..." She caught Damon's attention, but Claire avoided his eyes as she tried to search for the word without smiling. He waited and watched her as she shifted uncomfortably and looked back at him with a small smile and finished her sentence with one word. "Different."

Damon zipped up his jeans. "Different good or different bad?"

"Depends on your definition of good and bad," she admitted slyly, a dirty look on her face. Damon smirked and took it as a compliment as bent down and grabbed his shirt from the floor, slipping the button-down onto his shoulders before beginning to button it. As he did, he barely realized Claire put down her coffee and made her way over to him, where her hands replaced his on the buttons and she finished the rest for him. Damon looked down at her, confused.

"You regret it?" he questioned. It was difficult to read her. One moment, she was being as sarcastic as he was and in the next she was being sincere. It was hard to understand what she was really thinking. Claire sighed.

"I don't regret it," she admitted, her eyes wild for a moment before she finally looked up at him. "I'm a little confused and distraught, but I don't regret it. I only regret what happens next."

"What happens next?"

"If you meant what you said last night, Damon, you're eventually gonna want more and...who knows, maybe I want that, too." She ran her tongue along her teeth as she finished buttoning his shirt and dropped her hands to her sides with a heavy exhale. "But I don't think I can handle everything that comes with. Telling Stefan, to start."

Damon shrugged. "He's already guessed it a few times."

"And we lied to him," Claire reminded the vampire. Damon swallowed and listened as she continued her guilt-ridden explanation. "I mean, how do you think he feels? We probably made him feel crazy every time he asked about whether or not something more was going on between us. This has been on and off for _years, _Damon. How do we even begin to explain?"

"Hmm, you try, 'Stefan, I've been sleeping with your insanely handsome brother since the 1920s' and I'll go with 'Brother, I've seen Claire naked a few times'. That about does it."

The blonde grimaced at him. "Make jokes all you want, Damon, but this is serious. You don't understand, you've been brawling with Stefan since the beginning of time. He's my best friend and I love him."

Damon scoffed. "Don't you find it odd that he's the only one you actually _do _love?"

Claire laughed. "Jealousy does not suit you well, sugar."

"Sugar?"

"It's only fitting since, of course, now you're the girl in this relationship." Claire stepped forward, her arms crossed and a teasing grin on her face. "How does it feel begging a girl to kiss you? I bet it was excruciating."

Damon wagged a finger at her. "I never beg."

"Really? Because it sounded like begging last night. 'I want it all, Claire, I want you in every way—'"

Before she could finish her sentence, Damon leaned forward and planted a long, breathtaking kiss on Claire's lips, securing her face in his hands as he knocked the wind out of her. She was surprised to say the least, but he made sure he was the one driving their kiss in a desperate attempt to win back his masculinity. She practically fell into his arms, but he was too dominating to let her do anything but. The taste of his lips had been forced onto her, but she didn't object to it at all. In fact, when he pulled away, she needed a moment to regain her composure. Damon watched, satisfied, as he pulled away and grabbed the cup of coffee she had brought to him that he had set on the nightstand while she tried to recover from being taken so far off guard.

"Holy shit." Claire cleared her throat and wiped her lips, attempting to grab hold of whatever power she had left. Damon smiled smugly. "That was..."

"Hot." Damon moved to the door and winked at her before opening it. "It's okay, sugar, you can say it. I'm gonna go change now. It was your loss."

He didn't wait for her answer, but she was left watching as he walked down the hallway to his own room. Claire walked over to the door cautiously, observing as he went away, and she leaned against the threshold of her room for support as she sighed.

"Damn," she whispered.

"Claire!"

The sudden shout caused her to jump and stand as straight as military personnel when she saw Stefan storming down the hallway, looking back and forth distractedly. She wiped her mouth again, attempting to rid the guilt in her mind as she felt Damon's lips on hers and looked at his brother, her stomach sinking.

"Y-Yeah?"

"I can't find Amelia or Elena," Stefan rambled nervously. "I woke up and Amelia wasn't in the bed and then I went to Elena's room and she was gone. What if something happened to them?"

Claire shook her head calmly. "Stefan, calm down. No one can get in this house without Elena's invitation—"

"Claire," he cut her off, "they're not here."

For a moment, she debated reiterating what she had said before, but she could see the look of worry in her best friend's eyes and realized it was the look she promised never to ignore. The one that told her to believe in him even when he sounded insane. So with a small nod, Claire straightened and stepped out of her room, pulling the door shut.

"Let's search the house again," she suggested. Stefan ran a hand through his tousled hair and they sprinted down the stairs together, calling Amelia and Elena's names. When they rounded the staircase, Claire and Stefan noticed Christopher leading Andie Starr into their living room, causing the Claire to cock and eyebrow and Stefan, who was much too focused on finding the two loves of his life, to just pester them as well.

"Hey," Stefan breathed.

"Hey," Andie replied.

"Morning," Christopher nodded.

"Have you seen Elena and Amelia?"

Before either one of them could have a chance to respond to Stefan's inquiry, Claire walked up to Christopher, confused. "I thought you said you were leaving."

"Uh..." Christopher looked back and forth between Stefan and Claire as he debated which one to answer first. He looked at Andie and decided to speak to Stefan promptly. "I just invited, um, Andie, was it? Yeah, Andie. I just told Andie to come into the house so she hasn't seen Elena or Amelia and no, I haven't either." Christopher turned to Claire. "I figured it'd be useful for me to stay."

Stefan walked past them, having no more use for exchanging pleasantries as he was too busy for small talk. He whipped out his phone and dialed Amelia's number, leaving a voicemail when she didn't answer. He tried to do the same with Elena, but again, the same thing happened. Meanwhile, Claire crossed her arms and gave Christopher a friendly smile.

"Well, if it's any consolation, I'm glad you stayed," she tried sincerely. But there was a look in his eye that concerned her as she tried to be sincere and civil towards her ex-husband. He simply stared and gave her a false smile, one that she would give to someone she hated. Claire was beyond confused, but before she could say anything, Damon came rushing down the stairs.

"Hi, sweetie!" Damon boomed. Claire turned around, shifting uncomfortably, but she watched as Damon walked right past her and to Andie, where he smiled. "Oh, coffee!"

Andie smiled sheepishly. "Good morning."

"Mm, good morning." He gave her a kiss on the lips and grabbed the cup from Andie's hands. Andie wrapped her arms around Damon's waist and he let her stay there while Stefan stepped forward and tried to ignore Damon's pettiness.

"Hey, where's Elena and Amelia?"

"I don't know, they're your girlfriends." Damon shrugged and then looked back at Andie with a pout. "Oh, hey, how's the shoulder? Have time for a bite? I'm _so _hungry."

"Oh, it's really messy," Andie told him. "Can you just use a blood bag today? I'm really late for work."

"No..." Damon pouted again. Claire rolled her eyes at him but forced back her laughter that she could feel was rising in her lungs. While Damon made an ass out of himself with his human blood toy, she watched as Stefan called Amelia again, pacing back and forth in the foyer. As he did, Claire stepped in front of Andie and Damon and tried to follow Stefan as he began to pace in the hallway instead. But while Stefan was still leaving voicemails in Elena and Amelia's inboxes, Claire turned around and observed Andie and Damon in an embrace that only made her laugh.

"You know, Damon, she's not a wind-up toy," Claire pointed out with a scoff. Before she could turn and leave, Andie shot her a deathly glare while Damon smirked.

"It's really none of your business, is it, Claire?"

"Mm..." Claire trailed off as she backed away with a grin. "On the contrary. It's very _much _my business."

Damon watched her as she walked away and to Stefan who was waiting at the end of the hall. But before Claire and Stefan were out of sight, Andie frowned and looked up at Damon, confused.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Yeah, Damon," Christopher chimed beside him, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. "What _does _it mean?"

Damon looked back and forth between the woman in his arms and the jealous ex-husband beside him. Thinking of an excuse, Damon shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, you know Claire. Woman never makes sense."

Christopher nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

"Okay, I have to go to work!" Andie changed the subject, ripping herself out of Damon's arms as he protested. But regardless, he let her go with a goodbye and Christopher and Damon were left standing in the middle of the foyer, head-to-head. Before they could say anything, however, Damon caught the sight of Stefan and Claire noticing something peculiar out of the corners of their eyes and then they sprinted, causing Damon to put down his coffee mug and sprint right after them. All four vampires jogged down into the Salvatore cellar and fell short when Stefan stopped himself at the threshold of what used to be Elijah's holding cell but was now empty.

"No..." Damon trailed off with a growl. "They didn't."

Claire crossed her arms. "Oh, they did."

* * *

Elena pulled over the car as Elijah finished his third blood bag, finally regaining a bit of color to his recently dead face. Elena looked over at him and sighed.

"You look better."

"Where did you get the dagger?" Elijah began without wasting any time. Elena shook her head tightly.

"I'll tell you everything. But we have to work together, Elijah, I need your word.

"Your ability to make demands has long passed."

"It's not a demand." Amelia sat forward on the middle seat in the back of Elena's SUV and looked between the doppelgänger and the Original. "I mean, you can certainly think of it as a demand but the truth is, it's just people helping each other out. No demands."

Elijah scowled. "And why should I even consider this?"

"The same reason you haven't killed us." The blonde scoffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder as she tied the logic knot. "If we work together, we can kill Klaus. If we work separately, we don't stand a chance. I'm guessing that's what this one was thinking when she pulled your dagger out." Amelia looked at Elena pointedly, but it was nonetheless true.

Before Elijah could get a chance to respond, Elena's phone buzzed for the twentieth time. With a hard exhale, Elena pressed the answer button and held the phone up to her ear, immediately hearing Stefan's brisk voice.

_"Where are you? Are you okay?" _

"Yes, I'm fine," Elena replied. "Amelia's with me."

_"And where's Elijah?" _

"He's right here."

_"Where? I'm on my way." _

"No, Stefan, Elijah, Amelia, and I need some time alone."

_"Listen to me! He can't be trusted. He'll use you to get to Klaus." _

Elena paused and looked over at the Original in the passenger seat, a thought forming in her head. She was quiet for a few moments before the words spilled out of her mouth with the upmost grace and poise she could ever have imagined.

"Elijah is a noble man, Stefan," she defended. "He lives by a code of honor. I can trust him. He knows that I'd be incredibly stupid to betray him again. By removing the dagger, I have proven myself."

_"You can't do this alone." _

"It's my decision, Stefan. Please respect it. And make sure that Damon and Claire don't do anything stupid. I'll be in touch."

With that said, Elena hung up the phone and looked over at Elijah in silence. From the backseat, Amelia sighed.

"Oh, they're not going to be happy about this," she muttered. After a few seconds, they could hear a buzzing from beside her, and with a groan, Amelia answered Stefan's call with a simple "what she said" and merely hung up the phone. Elijah looked back at Amelia and over at Elena and he simply extended his hand, waiting for them to place something in it. Reluctantly, Elena and Amelia both set their phones into Elijah's hand and he put them in his crisp suit pocket where he knew they'd be safe.

* * *

"Did she just hang up on you?" Damon asked his brother, an offended tone tracing his voice. Stefan nodded.

"She did."

"She's lost it."

"This doesn't have to be a bad thing," said Christopher who was standing beside Stefan with a thoughtful look on his face. "If anyone can get this Elijah guy to kill Klaus, it's Elena. And she has Amelia to protect her; she's safe."

Claire shook her head at her ex-husband without looking up at him. "You don't understand. You didn't see him, you didn't see what he was capable of."

Stefan swallowed thickly. "No, I think Christopher's right."

"Like hell!" Damon jumped up from the couch. "Bonnie's the way to kill Klaus, Stefan! He thinks she's dead. We have a chance with her."

"She'll kill herself in the process," Stefan responded. "Elena's looking for another way."

"Her way's gonna get them both killed," Damon stressed as he looked down at Claire, looking for backup. She looked up at him and watched as he began, "We need to find her and stop her—"

"No, you need to back off!" the younger Salvatore interrupted, standing up from the couch to face his brother. Damon narrowed his eyes.

"What?"

"Stefan, Damon's right." Claire slowly stood up and nodded at the dark-haired Salvatore standing by her side. "Elena could be getting herself into more danger. After what we did to him, we can't trust Elijah. We have to stop her."

"Look, I don't like this any more than you do," he said. "But we need to trust her. We gotta just let her do her thing."

"That might be your plan," Damon said flatly. "Mine's better."

He moved to leave the foyer so he could put his plan in motion, but instead, Damon felt a hard hand come up and clasp down on his elbow, preventing him from leaving. Looking back, Damon saw Christopher staring him hard in the face, unusually standing his ground for once.

"He told you to back off," Christopher said slowly, staring Damon down. Damon's eyes were full of confusion and anger as he watched the bronze-haired vampire snarl at him. "Let Elena do what she has to do. Understand?"

There was a very uncomfortable moment of tension in the room, but after that split second, Damon yanked his arm back to himself and walked off down the hallway, taking Christopher's threat with a grain of salt and leaving the rest of the vampires behind. Claire looked at her ex-husband, who looked back at Stefan with a curt and agreeing nod, but she was disgusted. With a scoff, she headed off in the same direction Damon went and caught up with him as he walked into the study.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I agree with you," Claire murmured under her breath as she and Damon walked side-by-side into the room and towards the alcohol waiting on the lower level. Damon snorted.

"Gee, thanks. But seriously, what are we gonna do about your moronic little sister and our naïve doppelgänger?"

She crossed her arms and shrugged. "We'll figure something out. We always do."

"Mm," Damon agreed with a nod as he went to pour himself a drink from the decanter. He slid a drink to the blonde vampire waiting to be served, and the two of them toasted and wasted no time in downing the rest of the contents in the glass. Nearly ten minutes after the disagreement in the parlor, as Claire and Damon were on their second drink together, Stefan walked into the study from the hallway as Christopher walked into the room from the basement pouring a bag of o-neg into a crystal cup. Claire rolled her eyes and relaxed on the couch while Damon poured himself another drink.

"Hello?" Stefan answered his phone as he entered the study. All of the vampires in the room remained silent as Stefan talked on the phone so they could hear the voice on the other end. It was Jenna.

_"Hey, Stefan, it's Jenna." _

"Jenna. Hey."

_"Where's Elena and Jeremy? No one's answering their phones." _

"Ah, Elena's not here at the moment. Is, uh, is everything okay?"

_"She left me all these weird messages telling me to stay away from Ric. What's going on?" _

Stefan hesitated, but eventually he replied, "It's really hard to explain over the phone but, um, she was hoping that you could stay on campus for a little while longer."

_"Well, that's kind of hard to do from my kitchen." _

"Wait..." Stefan's eyes widened. "You're home?"

_"Yeah. What's going on? Where's Elena? I'm supposed to meet Ric at the Grill for lunch to...talk."_

"Jenna, listen to me carefully," the Salvatore said slowly, "whatever you do, do _not _meet Alaric at the Grill. I'm going to come over right now and I'm gonna explain everything."

Stefan promptly answered the phone, obviously in a hurry to get over to the Gilbert residence. He looked up at Damon and Claire, waiting for them to get off their asses and come with him, but Damon shrugged and drank out of his glass.

"Oh, I'd love to lend you a hand but...you wouldn't want me doing anything stupid," he said bitterly.

Stefan grimaced. "Seriously gonna be like this?"

"You and your girlfriend are calling the shots." Stefan looked between Christopher and Stefan pointedly. "_I'm _just...backing off. Can't speak for Miss Sunshine over there."

The younger Salvatore looked over at Claire. "Claire, are you coming?"

Claire looked between Stefan and Damon, her mouth opened but words failing to come out. After a few seconds, she sighed heavily and shook her head. "I...think I'm gonna stay with Damon right now, Stefan. Sorry."

Stefan scoffed in disbelief, but Christopher shook his head at both Claire and Damon and turned to Stefan. "Go. Make sure Elena's aunt isn't in any harm. I'll keep an eye on them."

"Thanks," he said curtly and rushed out of the house without so much as a goodbye. When Stefan was gone, Damon set his bourbon glass down and looked at Christopher with disdain.

"What are you, our babysitter now?" he scoffed. Christopher shrugged.

"Well, if we're being honest here, you two definitely need babysitting," he admitted. Claire shot him a glare, but Christopher ignored her and watched as Damon just gave him a sour smile and nodded over at the blonde waiting for him.

"Come on, Claire. Let's go." Damon downed the rest of his bourbon quickly and then rushed to the exit of the study, where he watched Andie fall short at the threshold. He smiled at her. "Hi."

"Hi," she replied, mesmerized. Claire set down her glass and stood up, confused.

"Where are we going and...why is she here?" the blonde asked. Damon turned around at her.

"We're splitting from the team. Going rogue. And we need her help, so come on." He watched as Claire slowly made her way up to the exit of the study, all the while Christopher just stood and watched while drinking his glass of blood as if nothing ever bothered him. "And I'm assuming you're not gonna do anything to stop us, right?"

Christopher only smiled. "Go ahead, Damon. I've got my own things to take care of."

Claire stepped forward. "Like what?"

He didn't respond. Christopher just looked at Damon and Claire, as if seeing all their secrets. They couldn't tell, but he knew he had them sweating. Damon's sly smile dropped from his face as he turned around and shook his head.

"Come on. Let's go before Slim Shady changes his mind."

* * *

"I don't think that this is a good idea," Andie voiced as she, Claire, and Damon approached Alaric's apartment door. Damon shrugged at her.

"You're an investigative journalist. We're investigating," he reasoned.

"Besides," Claire began, "who asked you, anyways?"

Andie gave her a dirty look, but Damon focused his girlfriend's attention on the door in front of them. He gestured to it, and with reluctance, Andie knocked on the surface and spoke aloud, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Hi, Alaric. You home? It's Andie...Starr, Jenna's friend," Andie announced herself. They could hear music playing in the apartment, but no one answered the door. Andie shrugged, not sure what to do next, but Damon looked around to make sure there were no human witnesses that could see what he was about to do. Stealthily, Damon twisted the knob of the door so hard that it snapped, causing the lock to break. He gestured to Andie to push it forward and she did, revealing Katherine standing in front of it, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Thank God," she exclaimed. Andie's eyes widened.

"Wow! You were right, she looks _exactly _like Elena." Andie stepped into the home as Damon and Claire fell short at the doorstep.

"Yep." Damon sighed when he realized he wasn't able to get inside. He looked over at Katherine with a disappointed smile. "Thought you might be dead."

She scowled. "Unfortunately not. What are you doing here?"

"We are here to rescue you," Andie reiterated what Damon had said earlier on the way over. Damon shook his head.

"No, sweetie. We are here to see if she deserves to be rescued," Damon corrected her. Claire scoffed and crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry, rescuing was never a part of the plan," she countered with a sigh. Katherine frowned at her. "Damon thought you were dead but Klaus...uh, Alaric..."

"Alari-Klaus," Damon helped her. She nodded.

"Sure. Alari-Klaus was fitting in too perfectly. Unless he somehow inherited all of Alaric's memories, which is highly doubtful, I figured he had to have had someone that was filling him in on this place." Claire gave Katherine a sour smile. "And you've done such a good job at recon thusfar."

"Okay, let's cut to the chase." Damon reached into his pocket and grabbed the small bottle of vervain in his pocket, waving it next to his head as if to taunt Katherine with it. Sure enough, the doppelgänger stiffened.

"Is that...?"

"Vervain? Your salvation?"

She shook her head hopelessly. "It's not gonna undo anything."

"There's always a loophole," Damon argued. "Did he tell you to stay in this apartment until he said it was okay to leave?" Katherine opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Damon gasped dramatically. "You can't say! Did he tell you to do absolutely everything he says until the end of time?"

"No!" Katherine answered quickly, originally just to prove Damon wrong but then she realized that she was allowed to speak, that she had found the way out. Damon smirked at her.

"There's your loophole." He waved the vervain again. "Drink this and prevent any further compulsion."

Katherine stomped forward, but just as she reached out to get the vervain from him, he jerked it back closer to his side of the door. The brunette vampire grimaced. "Give it to me."

Claire narrowed her eyes. "That's how you talk to the people who are trying to help you? Man, you've got some deep psychological issues."

Katherine grimaced. "I wasn't trying to prove you wrong. I don't care what you, of all people, think of me."

Claire and Katherine stared at each other, at a complete standstill. Damon watched them closely, but not close enough. Claire reached forward and ripped the vervain out of his hands, now in possession of the one thing that Katherine wanted. Katherine tried to protest and take the vervain, but Claire moved it far enough so that it was on her side of the door where Katherine couldn't reach. Katherine stared at her with extreme distaste.

"You're gonna answer some questions for me. Then you can have this," Claire demanded. Katherine crossed her arms and waited as Claire asked, "How do we stop Klaus?"

"You can't. Your witch is dead, there's nothing else you can do about it."

"There has to be another way, Katherine. There's always another way."

"If there is, I don't know it," the vampire snapped. Claire looked at her, expecting to see the lie trace her eyes, but instead she saw nothing but sheer annoyance. Claire straightened, clenching her teeth.

"And how do we save Elena?"

"Slip her some vampire blood before the ritual; I don't know. My plan was never to save that whiny little bitch."

"And me?" Claire raised an eyebrow challengingly at Katherine, who straightened and swallowed thickly. She took a moment, but after a while, Katherine sneered at her.

"You wanna know how to save yourself, Clarissa? I'll tell you how." Katherine smiled bitterly. "Run. If you're anywhere accessible by the time the full moon comes, he won't hesitate to replace you as the vampire in the ritual. So my advice? Run. He'll hunt you down eventually, but at least you'll have a few more years with you."

She shook her head. "That can't be the only way."

Katherine groaned. "I don't know what to tell you. I can't tell you what you want to hear because it's not true. So hand the vervain over, Claire."

"One more question," Damon interrupted, stopping Claire from handing the small bottle to Katherine inside of the apartment. "You double-crossed us with Isobel. Why?"

"I didn't think I could stand a chance against Klaus," Katherine admitted honestly. "I was looking out for myself."

He smiled and grabbed the bottle from Claire before turning back to Katherine with a smug grin. "And where'd that get you?" He tossed the bottle to her. "Here. Be careful with that. He finds out you have that, you're never getting out of here."

Katherine opened the small bottle and took a sip of the vervain inside, coughing once she ingested it. Damon backed away.

"You owe me. And I will collect." He turned to Andie and jerked his head. "Come on."

"Nice to meet you," Andie blurted out as she left the apartment, closing the door and heading out after Claire and Damon. Katherine stepped out of the way of the door and sighed as she clasped the lid onto the small bottle of vervain and walked back into the excruciatingly silent and boring apartment. Right as she was about to grab the bottle of jack on the counter, she heard the door swing open again. Confused, Katherine turned around, expecting to see Damon, but instead she saw Christopher standing at the threshold.

"Hello, Katherine," he chimed, giving her a small smile. Katherine swallowed uncomfortably and shook her head.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. Christopher sighed and leaned against the doorframe.

"I have a slight problem," he admitted. Katherine crossed her arms and waited for him to elaborate. "And, see, you're the only one who's been honest when it comes to this problem. The only one, besides them, who actually knows...anything about what they've been doing."

Katherine narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Damon and Claire," Christopher said shortly. She could sense the irritation in his voice and immediately, Katherine knew the conversation was not going to be a good one. But since Damon and Claire had gotten to her first, given her the vervain, she decided to cash in her favor then.

She shrugged. "I don't know anything about what's been going on with Damon and Claire. I told you, just that one time, they kissed and I saw it."

Christopher raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought would be the perfect opportunity for you to get your sworn revenge on Claire. I guess that vervain really patched up your friendship?" Katherine stiffened and watched as he pulled out another bottle of liquid vervain. "How about I one-up them? Will you tell me then?"

Katherine paused. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Christopher frowned. "If you meant what you said before...if you really _loved _me...you wouldn't ask that question."

"I'm asking it because I _do _love you," she countered with a scoff. He shrugged.

"Fine. Then yes, I'm sure." He tossed the vervain over the threshold where Katherine caught it in her hand and gripped it tightly. "Tell me what you know."

* * *

Elena closed the door to the study, attempting to give Jenna some privacy so she could process what she'd learned. Because of Alaric's presence at her house, Stefan had no choice but to protect her in the only way possible, and that way caused her to learn about vampires. Stefan was pacing in front of the door when Elena came out with a melancholic look on her face.

"Is she gonna be okay?" he asked.

"She's in shock," Elena responded. "I tried to tell her as much as I could but...I barely scratched the surface."

"I'm so sorry, Elena," Stefan apologized. "I hate this."

"It's not your fault, Stefan. It's mine. Anyway, I have to go back." Stefan knotted his eyebrows, confused. "To Elijah."

"Wait, what? No. No!"

"Stefan, I promised him that I would return. Besides, Amelia is still there," she reasoned. Stefan sighed while she continued, "But I can't break that promise to him." He opened his mouth to say something, but he realized what she meant and realized that there was nothing he could do to stop her. She nodded at him. "I'll be okay."

"Just be safe." Elena turned around and watched Christopher come down the stairs and approach her. She nodded again. "Trust your instincts, Elena. If you feel unsafe, do something about it."

"Thank you." She moved past him and towards the door, but before she could even get five steps in, she watched as Damon and Claire came marching down the hallway as if ambushing her. She took a deep breath to handle their wrath.

"Where do you think you're going?" Damon prompted sourly.

"Back to Elijah."

Damon flashed over to her, finding it was useless with human speed as he blocked her way and shook his head. "No."

"Get out of my way, Damon—"

"Elena, why do you insist on making things fifteen times more difficult for us?" Claire tried as she approached Damon's side and stared at Elena with a disapproving glare. Elena shifted uncomfortably with the lecture. "All we're doing is trying to keep you safe! Trying to keep _me _safe! Why do you want to ruin this for us?"

"You said you wanted to find another way to kill Klaus," Elena reminded her harshly. "This is it, Claire! I _know _he knows another way!"

"And if he doesn't?"

"He does!"

"We can't take that chance," Claire responded briskly. Elena frowned.

"I'm not asking for your opinion." She looked between Damon and Claire. "Now move so I can—"

As Elena tried to move her way around Damon and Claire, Damon suddenly reached forward and snatched her arm with an incredible force, causing the human to step back into her previous position and remain still. Damon shook his head at her. "If you so much as try and take a step out of this house..."

"Damon, easy..." Andie tried from behind him.

"Stay out of this, Andie!" Damon barked at her.

"Let her go," Christopher ordered the dark-haired Salvatore from a few inches behind Elena. Damon scoffed.

"Right. Like I'm gonna take orders from you, Slim Shady. We just got her back, there's no way she's leaving his house again. She's putting everyone at danger—including Claire."

Elena shook her head. "I would never put us in danger."

"Well, you are!" Damon boomed, but just as he really got heated, he felt a hand clasp around his arm again with incredible force, and he looked beside him to again see Christopher standing forcefully and protectively, waiting for Damon to get his hands off of Elena.

"You heard me, Damon," he said lowly. "Let her go."

Damon's eyes slowly crept over to Christopher's as he growled, "That's twice today you've stood in my way. I wouldn't try a third."

"Just go," Stefan said softly to Elena as Christopher and Damon stood in the foyer in the middle of a stare down. Elena snuck past Damon and Claire, though Claire was more focused on Christopher and Damon than she was on Elena at the moment. They heard the front door close softly as a signal of Elena's exit, and when she was gone, Claire turned to the two men beside her with an angry look on her face.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" she ordered, her voice hard and stern. Damon jerked his arm back forcefully and Christopher dropped his hand, but Claire was provoking him and he didn't know how to stop. "Christopher, you need to lay off! I don't know what you're trying to prove, staying here and picking fights but—"

"I heard you," he said suddenly, cutting her off in the middle of her sentence. Christopher's wild eyes looked back and forth between Damon and Claire. "I heard both of you last night. I heard what you did, what you said. And then I went and talked to Katherine today. I know everything."

Claire tensed, but Damon's eyes cut into him, as if threatening Christopher to be silent. Stefan, however, was making things worse. He fit himself into the conversation, looking between the feuding vampires with confusion.

"What's going on?" Stefan asked.

Claire swallowed thickly. "Christopher, don't—"

But it was too late. By the time she tried to stop it, Christopher turned to Stefan and blurted out, "Stefan, your brother and your best friend have been sleeping with each other since the 1920s. They lied to you every single chance they had. They told both of us nothing was going on; they told us they hated each other but the truth of it all is that they've been in love since they were children and they've been _fucking _each other behind your back since."

Damon bit down on his tongue to refrain from screaming. Instead, he snapped at Christopher, "I don't see how it was any of your business."

"What, it wasn't my business when I married her? It wasn't my business when I was trapped in a tomb for a fucking century!" Christopher shouted, his eyes fuming. Claire flinched, but she didn't let him see how much his harsh words were affecting her. But he didn't stop there. He looked over at Claire, hatred burning in his eyes. "Katherine was right about you all along. You thought she was the slut? You thought she was the one who manipulated men into getting what she wanted? You're no different, Clarissa."

He turned on his heel and walked away from them without turning back. It left Damon, Claire, and Stefan standing in the middle of the foyer with the aftershock of the bomb he'd just dropped. Damon looked at Claire, knowing her ex-husband's words were so harsh they had to have some effect, but he didn't get to say anything before Stefan looked at both of them with disgust and betrayal.

"I can't believe you two," Stefan whispered quietly, earning Damon's attention. Claire looked up at him and tried to speak, but he cut her off. "How could you? I asked you both...countless times! What, did you think I would hate you if I knew the truth? Did you think I would treat you differently? You lied to me! Both of you!"

"Stefan, I'm so sorry—" Claire began, but he shook his head and cut her off by holding his hand up as he brushed past her, intentionally brushing her shoulder and left the house, slamming the door on his way out. Immediately, Claire followed after him, but Damon tried to grab her hand and stop her.

"Claire—" Damon tried, but she shook his hand off and flashed out of the house, leaving Damon alone in the mansion with Andie by his side. He barely even noticed the human beside him and simply marched off into the study without a word.

* * *

"Stefan!" Claire shouted after him as she followed him out onto the Salvatore lawn. He was at least a few yards away from her at that point, but he had stopped in the center and tousled his hair in frustration. It gave her time to catch up to him, where she flitted so that she was standing in front of him and he had no room to escape. "Stefan, you have to understand—"

"What do I need to understand, Claire?" Stefan prompted. She waited and let him get everything off his chest. "God, I mean...you know, what you did doesn't hurt. You want to be with Damon...fine, I mean if it makes you happy...whatever. But ninety years? Ninety years! You've been sleeping with him for a century and you lied to me about it!"

"Technically..." Claire gulped nervously. Stefan watched with widened eyes. "Stefan, you knew there was stuff between us when we were human! Do I really have to get into all the details with you?"

"No! No, you really, really don't," he pleaded. She watched as he paced back and forth. "I just don't understand why you would lie."

Claire bit down on her lip. "You want the truth or the my truth?"

He glared at her. "The truth would be nice for once, thank you."

She sighed. "Stefan, it was fun. That's it, it was just...it was fun. It was fun to sneak around, it was fun to argue and throw lamps and hairdryers and then...well, do what came afterwards. It was fun. That was our truth, mine and Damon's. We thought it'd be too boring if you knew."

Stefan took a moment to process what he'd heard, but after a while, he said quietly, "And what's your truth?"

Claire swallowed thickly. "I knew that...if you knew about us, it would be real. It would mean something. I didn't want it to mean anything."

Stefan put his hands on his hips. "Does it mean anything?"

"I don't know." She thought carefully and shifted, uncomfortable. "I think...I think Damon wants it to. After what happened with Katherine and seeing you with Elena and then Amelia...I think he wants the same thing you have. But I don't know if I can give it to him."

Stefan shook his head. "Why are you so afraid of it? Your whole life, with everyone I've seen you get close to—which, I might add, happens to not be a lot of people—you just...you put up this wall. You shove them out."

"Hey!" she protested. "That's not true! I've tried to let people in. I did it with Christopher...well, you know, until he left me. Obviously that was a mistake. But it's hard with Damon, okay? With our history, everything is complicated."

"But you've never tried," Stefan pointed out. She stayed silent, realizing that he was right. Eventually, Stefan let out a big breath of disappointed air. "Look, I'm not mad. I'm...disgusted, but not mad. I'm just hurt that you didn't trust me enough to tell me what was going on. Even after I asked you _over _and _over _again. You lied, Claire."

"I know." She stepped forward. "I know, Stef, and I'm sorry. I do trust you, you know that. You're my best friend, how could I not? But I lied because...I just didn't want you to know. I didn't want anyone to know."

"How did Katherine, then?" Stefan asked, confused. She shrugged.

"I don't know. She probably spied on us or something. You know she's always had it in for me and this was her way of getting back at me for some of the things I've done to her. But I promise, Stefan, no more secrets. That was it. I swear."

Stefan was silent for a long time, thinking it over. But finally when he spoke, he let out a soft sigh. "As long as you don't try to talk about your...encounters with me, I'm fine with it. But no more secrets, Claire."

"No more secrets, Stefan." She smiled. "And, trust me, the last thing I want to do is talk to you about Damon. Though I'm sure it'd hurt his ego which would be a nice plus."

Stefan scoffed. "One second you're sleeping with him, the next you're making fun of him?"

"We have a strange relationship, Stefan. You should know that better than anyone."

* * *

"Is it true?" Andie asked softly as she set down a glass of bourbon on the end table for Damon. The dark-haired Salvatore was sitting on the couch in the study in a daze thinking about what had just happened. Anger raged inside of him thinking about Christopher, the two-faced bastard probably smirking to himself thinking about the secret he had no business sharing. It sickened Damon to his very core thinking about the words that Christopher said to Claire, words that she didn't deserve. He'd said them before and he regretted them the second they came out of his mouth, but he was sure Christopher felt no such regret. "About you and Claire? Is she the one you're in love with?"

Damon sighed at her. "Just go. Please."

"I-I know you're worried about her with everything going on..."

"Andie!" Damon snapped. The human flinched, but Damon looked up at her and just said sternly, "Go."

"Okay," she agreed softly and turned to walk out. Damon grabbed the bourbon glass beside him and swallowed some of it, relishing in the burn in the back of his throat. But he just about lost it when he heard someone's voice from the entrance of the lower level of the study.

"You know, what's the point in having her around?" Christopher wondered aloud as he stared at the moping Salvatore on the couch. "You would think you have enough, stealing my wife."

"Don't you start with me," Damon sneered at him. "Claire might've allowed you to say some of those hateful things to her but I sure as hell won't let you get away with it."

"What are you going to do to me, Damon?" Christopher snapped. Damon turned his head sharply to face him, but Christopher stood his ground again, challenging the dark-haired Salvatore. "You've taken everything I have. You let me rot in that hellhole for an entire century and the entire time you were screwing _my _wife!"

"She wasn't _your _anything! You think you can make her be someone's wife or someone's girlfriend, Christopher? You're wrong. She doesn't belong to anyone."

Christopher scoffed. "Yeah, well, a marriage doesn't lie, Damon. She belonged to me."

Damon watched as the vampire tried to leave, but he wasn't going to get off that easily. Dirty, terrible words formed inside of Damon's mind and he just couldn't help himself. The dick deserved it.

"You know, if you're gonna look at it that way, one could say she belonged to me first." Damon took a nonchalant sip of his bourbon and watched from the corner of his eye as Christopher turned around, intrigued. A small smile formed on his lips. "Because, back in the day, a woman belonged to the very first man she had sex with. And, unfortunately, that wasn't you."

Damon watched as Christopher came to the conclusion, but Damon didn't break a sweat as he set his bourbon glass down carefully and listened as Christopher then whispered, "You had sex with her before we got married?"

Damon lifted himself from the couch and stared right at Christopher, his eyes hard. "Right before I went off in the war."

"You're lying!"

"Why would I lie? What do I have to gain?" He could see Christopher fuming. "You know, you should be thankful. Now you can stop obsessing over the one woman that won't ever want you."

Christopher laughed. "Right. So I should thank you for being in love with my wife?"

"Ex-wife," Damon corrected. Christopher's lips turned down into a grimace and he walked forward, never taking his eyes off his opponent.

"You know, you can be in love with Claire all you want if it means that you'll do everything to keep her alive, just like I would or Stefan would." Damon waited for the punchline as Christopher drew closer like an idiot, right into his trap. "But you and I both know it's a lost cause."

"Why's that?"

"Well, she was forced to love me because we were married," Christopher began. "And she loves Stefan because he's her best friend. She'll love Amelia because she's her sister. But you? There's nothing forcing her to love you, Damon. And she won't."

There it was. And the moment it was out of Christopher's mouth, Damon punched as hard as he wanted to, knocking Christopher back into the bookshelf of the study so that it shattered. Clenching his fists, Damon watched as Christopher recoiled and lunged at him, wrapping his hands around Damon's throat and therefore causing Damon to do the same. The two vampires in the midst of an equal power-struggle practically shook the entire study, but it was only when they heard a stern, familiar voice that they were forced to step back.

"Stop!" Claire shouted as she walked into the study with Stefan by her side. The two had eyes wide as the moon watching the brawl take place. She looked back and forth between them. "What the hell is wrong with you two?"

"What's going on?" someone else asked, causing Claire and Stefan to look over their shoulders and find Amelia, Elena, and Elijah standing behind them, confused and awaiting an answer.

No one gave them a response to Amelia's question, but rather Damon snarled, "Now you've invited him in?"

"Elijah and I have renewed the terms of our deal," Elena told the vampires in the room. Damon scoffed.

"Really?"

"All of the vampires in this room will come to no harm at my hands," Elijah assured them in a professional manner. He looked around at them and stipulated, "I only ask for one thing in return."

"And what would that be?" Claire asked.

"An apology," he replied reasonably. From the lower level of the room, Damon knotted his eyebrows.

"A what?"

Stefan sighed. "I'm sorry for the part that I played in your death."

"I didn't play a part in your death," Christopher spoke up after Stefan's apology. Elijah looked over at him as Christopher shrugged. "But I'm sorry that they did it."

Elijah turned and looked at Claire, who was uncomfortably weighing her options. She looked at Damon, who was giving her a glare that told her not to say anything, but she felt like she had no choice. After a long-winded sigh, she walked forward and looked at Damon over the ledge before speaking to him.

"Damon, if we can help, we should let him help. The sacrifice is going to happen and there's nothing we can do to stop it." She nodded softly and then turned around to apologize to Elijah. "Elijah, I'm sorry we killed you."

That was it. One more vampire in the room had to apologize and they could all work together. But Damon was silent, and everyone knew that he was the most likely to turn on them all. Elena stepped forward by Claire's side.

"She's right, Damon. The sacrifice will happen but Bonnie will be able to kill Klaus without hurting herself and Elijah knows how to save my life. I told you I'd find another way and I did."

"Is it true?" Damon asked Elijah. He nodded.

"It is."

"And you're trusting him?" Damon asked Elena. She nodded.

"I am."

"And Claire?" Damon's eyes drifted up to Elijah, who stiffened. "You know how to save her too?"

Elijah swallowed, but maintained his professional manner. "I believe we can keep her hidden long enough for Klaus to have no other option but to take the life of a regular vampire. Once he's dead, there will be no need for her to continue to run from him."

Claire tensed beside Stefan, realizing what Elijah was proposing was exactly what Katherine had. Damon snorted at him. "That's your big plan? Let her run? That's not saving her at all!"

"Damon, it's our best option," Claire blurted out. She knew it was true, though she didn't want it to be. Damon looked at her with hard eyes and she thought he would be okay with it, she thought her agreement would make him understand. Instead, he turned on all of them.

"You can all go to hell."

He raced out of the room, leaving the rest of them to stare after in all his self-hatred. Claire sighed and looked at Elijah.

"He's bad with apologies, Elijah. He hates being wrong," she tried. "But he'll come around."

Elijah didn't bother looking at her. He just stared after where Damon had gone and said slowly, "Perhaps."

Stefan pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Maybe I should go check on him..."

"No, don't worry about it." Claire touched Stefan's arm softly and gave him a small smile. "I can handle it when Damon's angry. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll try to be angry with me. That always helps."

She moved down the study so that she could go in the direction that he went, but as she tried to exit the room, she felt a strong hand come around her forearm and block her. Claire bit her tongue to refrain from yelling spiteful words as Christopher, without even looking at her, growled, "Our wedding night. Was that the first time you had ever..."

Claire raised a stiffening breath in her lungs, but slowly, she shook her head. "No. It wasn't."

She shook his arm off of hers and took off after Damon, leaving her ex-husband heartbroken and seething in the middle of the Salvatore study. Claire made sure to travel up the stairs quickly but swiftly, trying to give Damon enough time and space but also wanting to make sure he was okay. But when she managed to get up to the hallway where his room was, she heard a violent scream. Picking up her pace, she burst through the threshold of Damon's room only to witness him throw Andie down on the floor aggressively, blood dripping down his chin as he loomed above her while she cried. Sensing someone else in the room, Damon turned around to see Claire with a horrified look on her face, and immediately he tried to rid himself of the monstrous look he knew he bore.

"Claire—" he began, but she cut him off.

"How dare you?" Claire snarled. He could sense her filling with fury as she spoke, nearing closer to him. "Why do you keep doing this? Why do you make it so difficult for me to defend you? Why do you make it so difficult for me to choose you, Damon?! All day I've been choosing you! All day I've been trying to defend you to everyone but you make it so hard! And then this? She's just a human, Damon!"

"No one asked you to choose me," Damon growled at her, but fighting back was clearly not the right route for him to take.

"You did!" she shouted. "You asked me to choose you and I did! But why does this keep happening? Why do you make me _hate _you? I don't want to hate you! You just keep making me! You don't know the difference between right and wrong, you don't know the difference between good and bad! You were fighting with Christopher down there when you should've backed away! You should've been the better man and yet you consistently keep picking fights! And then you victimize innocent people and I just don't get it. How can expect me to love you when you keep doing this?!"

He stayed quiet and the two were at a standstill. Andie watched them through her salted eyes but she said nothing, and the next thing she knew, Claire had turned on her heel and stormed out.

"Claire!" Damon shouted after her. "Claire!"

But she didn't stop. Damon didn't bother going after her when she made it clear she didn't want to be around him. She left Damon in his room to think about her words as she stormed downstairs and met Elena at the bottom of the staircase. She instantly noticed something was wrong, but Claire didn't slow her movements. She reached up and grabbed her leather jacket from the coat rack and her car keys from the tray by the door.

"Claire, what's wrong?" Elena asked worriedly. Claire shook her head.

"Nothing, Elena. I'll be back later." And without wasting another second, she stepped outside, climbed into her car, and left the house, too stressed to deal with anyone inside of it.

* * *

She was on her third glass of bourbon when night had finally come and it was starting to be socially acceptable for her to drink. The Grill was pretty empty with the exception of a few regular customers and a few midday drinkers sitting at the bar such as herself. When she downed all of the bourbon in her glass in one shot and swallowed it whole, however, the bartender looked at her as if she were insane. Claire gave him a smile and inched the glass forward.

"Come on, Sam..." Claire groaned as the bartender looked at her with disapproving eyes. "Haven't we been through this before? I'm fine! I'll take another."

Sam leaned closer to her. "I really think you have a drinking problem."

She grinned. "It's only a problem if I say it's a problem. And it's not a problem. Another, please."

Sam sighed. "Claire, I don't feel comfortable giving you another shot unless I you give me a number I can call if you get too drunk to drive home."

"I can't get drunk, Sammy, we've been over this before. Of course, it normally ends with me compelling you to forget that we had these conversations or that I was totally _wasted _but—"

"Another round for the lady, please. One for me as well."

Claire turned her head and watched as a man sat beside her after interrupting her mid-sentence, but though confused, she was grateful to see that Sam had sighed and turned behind the counter so that he could pour them two drinks. Claire straightened from leaning on the bar, running a hand through her hair so that it wasn't a mess of golden strands as it was before when she was leaning up against the palm of her hand that had created intolerable frizz. The man beside her just smiled at the bartender as he handed him one glass and set the other in front of Claire. She was skeptical, but she didn't object to it.

"Thank you," she said slowly.

"You're very welcome, love."

"British, too, huh?"

He smiled. "I guess it must be your lucky day."

She snorted. "Mm, quite the contrary. I've had a very, very _unlucky _day. Especially when it comes to men. You know, actually, I've had a very, very unlucky _year _when it comes to men."

The British man smiled. Unknown to Claire since she was too focused on him to realize what was going on, whoever was to the other side of her at the bar opened a bottle and spilled liquid inside of it so quickly that, because she was impaired, she wouldn't notice.

"Well, I can see why. You're very beautiful," he flattered her. Claire laughed.

"I know. It's definitely a problem." She looked down at her glass and then, after a moment's hesitation, she looked up at him and smiled. "You know, you're not so bad yourself."

He took a sip of his drink while smiling. "I'm aware. It's...definitely _not_ a problem."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, and there's the ego, I see."

"I could say the same about you."

She picked up her glass and smiled slowly at him. "Yes, but it's okay with me because I'm allowed to be a hypocrite. No one else is, of course."

He shrugged. "A woman as beautiful as you does earn her rights."

"Flattery will get you nowhere..." She trailed off as she pulled the glass to her lips and drank, waiting for him to tell her his name. He waited long enough for her to take a large gulp of it, impaired by her intoxication that she was unaware that she was ingesting a mixture of vervain and a sedative that would cause her to be more compliant.

"Klaus," he answered. Her eyes widened when she realized who he was, but she barely had time to react. When she realized the vervain she had ingested and set her glass down with a slam, coughing all over the place, he jumped up from his seat and caught her in his arms as she fell over on the bar stool, coughing up the harmful substance in her throat. He smoothed out her hair, attempting to look as if he was calming her down.

"Shh, shh. It's okay, it was just a little vervain, love. Well, with a bit of an extra kick." He waited until her coughing started to become less prevalent and she began to fall slack in his grasp, the effect of the magical sedative Maddox had slipped to her. Pulling Claire away from his chest, he looked up at Maddox. "Take her. Put her somewhere safe. _No one _touches her, understand?"

"Yes," Maddox nodded and took Claire from Klaus's arms, slinging one arm around his shoulder so that he could walk her out inconspicuously. Klaus sat back down on the stool at the bar and smiled before holding his finger up to signal another drink.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**NicoleR85: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**RHatch89: **Another one for you! :)

**grapejuice101: **Yep she definitely has a few guys wanting her. And this chapter was definitely a game-changer so the next few will be fun. Here's the update! Hope you enjoyed it!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Lol yeah Elijah is pretty hot. I love Elijah like just his character is amazing lol but anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

**HALEBTRASH: **Thank you!

**Anna.B: **Elena and Claire are close but Elena still has doubts about Claire just because she and Elena think in very different ways. I mean, they think in the same way when it comes to morals but when it comes to strategizing, Claire is more like Damon in that way and that's what makes Elena nervous which is why she made her stand outside with Damon. I'm not the biggest fan of Christopher tbh like his character is really annoying me but I have to keep going with this because eventually he will be redeemed but he needs something to be redeemed from. Yeah, basically, they all turned on them which is another point of Damon and Claire's complexity that I like to write about. They stick together through most things but in this chapter she kind of turned on him which is understandable. She was trying really hard not to but some things that Damon does just crosses a line with her and she can't stand for it. I mean, if Elena and Christopher were to get together it would not be any time soon and that'll make more sense in 2x21. But there is a potential for them in the future but it won't really be a big deal for Claire because by then she'll have moved on with Damon and it's important for Christopher to move on as well. Though I am debating bringing someone else in for Elena for Season 3 and maybe onwards I'm not sure. Well, they focused on Claire a little more in this chapter but really I think Claire just wants everyone to focus on Elena because she believes she can handle herself. Obviously, after this last bit, she can't because she was taken by Klaus but the thought still counts. But trust me, Claire will still be a very big part of this ritual and people will die for her. No interactions with Elijah thusfar, however maybe in Season 3 she and Elijah will get to know each other better. Anyways, thanks for the review! Here's the update!

**Tvd2014: **Haha thanks! I thought it was pretty great poetry :) Claire's really trying here but that will eventually cause her to hit some obstacles in the future. Sorry but this was a bit of a cliffhanger! Next chapter is coming soon!

**Guest: **Haven't thought much about whether I'm actually gonna give Elena a sire bond or not just because of how things are going to work out that change a lot in Season 3 but yeah, if Elena were to be sired to someone, it'll probably be Stefan, Amelia, or Claire. I'll have to think about it but thank you for the suggestion! Thank you and here's the next chapter!

**Guest: **He's just whining because he feels entitled but Damon really put him in his place this chapter. She'll tell him that in the season finale ;) Thank you so much! Here's the next chapter!

**klandgraf2007: **He got tired of holding it in lol but yeah it was pretty romantic I'll say. Christopher is definitely advancing things and the rest of the season is going to be pretty hectic. Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	34. The Last Day

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Last Day**

_Stupid. _

_Stupid, stupid, stupid!  
_

It was extremely rare for Damon to insult himself, let alone curse himself out multiple times in the same hour, but it was a special circumstance. He went to bed fuming, tired of everything and everyone and wishing and hoping that everyone turned up dead so he could get the hell out of dodge and move on with his life. However, the moment his eyes lifted from his sleep, calming him down from the anger he had felt the previous night, he realized what a big, gigantic, _stupid _mess he'd made of himself. He would never admit this fault to anyone, of course, but he knew it was wrong of him to have done everything he did the moment that Christopher sauntered into the study as if he held the world at his fingertips. Of course, Christopher Fell was still a gigantic prick, but that didn't change the fact that Damon knew what he should have done and ignored it anyways, which caused it all to roll downhill from there. First with Elijah, then with Andie, and finally with Claire.

"Tonight is the full moon," Damon heard coming from downstairs, recognizing the voice as Elijah's. "We should assume that Klaus is prepared to break the curse."

As soon as Damon heard the word 'curse', he realized that he better be downstairs to hear what the noble son of a bitch had to say. Just because he knew what he did was wrong didn't mean that he had to trust Elijah at all. Quickly, he dressed for the day and left his room, moving down the hallway all the way until he reached Claire's room, which was shut. With a heavy sigh, Damon raised his fist and knocked, waiting impatiently for her to answer the door. Only a few seconds passed before Damon heard someone catch his attention from down the hallway.

"She's not there." Damon turned and noticed Christopher, a sour and unimpressed expression resting on his face, as he looked to the door and looked back at Damon. "I tried already."

Without anything more to say, the vampire simply went down the stairs, showing no signs of remorse or plans of leaving. Bitterly, Damon turned back to Claire's door and knocked again, damned if he would take advice from his girlfriend's ex-husband who just spilled her deepest, darkest secret to the one person that mattered more to her than anyone else. The likelihood of it was that she knew it was Christopher and refused to answer the door.

"Claire," Damon called through the door. "Claire, open the door. It's me." No response.

Sighing, he twisted the knob, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn't. Confused, he pushed it open and observed the room. It seemed colder than it should have with a bed that looked like it hadn't been slept in. At first, Damon assumed the worst, panicking for a split second before he realized that maybe, just maybe, she was already downstairs for the morning. Deciding not to assume anything for the moment, he turned and walked down the stairs, entering the study where Elijah, Amelia, Stefan, Elena and Christopher were all congregated in, listening to the Original speak his peace. Christopher was behind the couch pouring himself an early glass of alcohol while Stefan, Elena, and Amelia were all sitting on the couch, listening intently.

"Elena said that the Sun and the Moon curse is _fake_?" Stefan asked disbelievingly. "That it's actually just a curse placed on Klaus?"

"Klaus is a vampire born of a werewolf bloodline. The curse has kept his werewolf aspect from manifesting," the nobleman explained. "But if he breaks it, he'll be a true hybrid."

"Then why are we letting him break the curse?" Damon piped as he strolled into the study and faced his friends. "We can kill him today. With Bonnie."

"Damon..." Stefan began.

"No," Elena interrupted him, looking up at Damon with evil eyes. "Bonnie can't use that much power without dying!"

"I'll write her a great eulogy!"

"It's not an option, Damon."

"Okay, hold on, hold on. Wait a minute." Amelia lifted herself from the couch, interrupting Damon and Elena's stare down as she looked at Elijah with a sigh. "Let's get the details hashed out, shall we? How, exactly, is this curse broken? What are the steps?"

"Well, the ritual itself is relatively straightforward," Elijah started. "The ingredients, so to speak, you already know."

"The moonstone," Stefan filled in.

"A witch will channel the power of the full moon to release the spell that's bound within the stone. After that, Klaus, being both werewolf and vampire, will sacrifice one of each."

Christopher swallowed the hard liquor and looked up. "And using Claire's blood would ultimately make him stronger than any vampire in the entire world for the rest of eternity, right?"

Elijah hesitated, but after a while, he took in a deep breath and stated, "King blood is preferred in most spells. It strengthens the binding and makes it virtually impossible to break. No one knows why or how their blood was made so special, but it was. My family and I were turned into vampires using King blood and therefore, yes, we are stronger than the average vampire. Klaus using Clarissa as his vampire sacrifice, ultimately draining all the blood in her body, would not only strengthen him but also strengthen the spell. It would become irreversible...indestructible. As will he."

"And where do I fit into it?" Elena asked, raising her eyebrows.

"The final part of the ritual." Elijah walked over to a shelf in the study and grabbed an old box that he had procured for himself and brought along with him. "Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelgänger to the point of your death."

The entire room went painstakingly silent among the harsh words, but Elena held herself high and exhaled roughly. "And that's where you come in."

"This is an elixir that I acquired some five hundred years ago for Katerina. It possesses mystical properties of resuscitation," Elijah explained as he reached into the box in his hand and pulled out a dusty bottle of this elixir he mentioned. Elena leaned forward.

"So I'll be dead..."

"And then you won't."

"That's the plan?" Damon scoffed. "A magical witch potion with no expiration date?" He looked over at Elena. "You want to come back to life? W-What about John's ring?"

"Those rings only work on humans," Elijah interjected. "The doppelgänger is a supernatural occurrence. Odds are, the ring won't work."

"Well, I'll take those odds over your elixir." Damon rolled his eyes before looking back at the doppelgänger, contemplating the situation at her own spot on the couch. He sighed. "What if it doesn't work, Elena?"

She caught his eyes. "Then I guess I'll just be dead."

Damon looked around the room, waiting for someone to object to Elena's uncertain statement, but no one did. Frustrated, Damon threw his hands up.

"Whatever! You wanna kill yourself, Elena, be my guest. Not my problem. You know what is? Claire. Where the hell is she, anyways?" The older Salvatore looked pointedly at his brother, who realized Damon was talking to him and knotted his eyebrows with a shrug.

"I don't know...getting changed? Maybe she's still sleeping, I'll go wake her up." Stefan lifted himself from the couch to go upstairs, but Christopher set down his glass wearily and shook his head.

"She's not in there," he told Stefan, who looked back with an increasingly worried look on his face. Amelia watched Damon, Stefan, and Christopher and widened her eyes.

"Well, where the hell is my sister?"

"She went out last night," Elena blurted out, causing everyone to look over at her and wait for the human to elaborate. "She was, uh, she was upset. Stormed downstairs, grabbed her jacket, and took off. I thought she would come home later, I-I didn't know."

Damon sighed. "Yeah, we fought." He turned to Elijah. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Elijah cocked an eyebrow at the Salvatore. "Me? What would I have to do with Clarissa's disappearance?"

"You're the one talking about all this mumbo-jumbo with hiding her before the ritual so Klaus will have no choice!" he boomed. "Maybe you suggested she take off, leave everyone behind so we wouldn't know where she was!"

The Original turned to Damon with a sour frown. "I had suggested we hide her, yes, but I was thinking more along the lines of a local safehouse where she could remain in our sight so there would be assurance she wouldn't be used to break Klaus's curse, Damon. It's too dangerous for her to have fled out into the open."

"Well then where is she? Can you tell me that?" Damon challenged. Elijah didn't answer, and therefore, Elena slowly stood up to look at her ally.

"Elijah, if you know something..."

"Klaus has been waiting to break this curse for a thousand years, Elena." The Original looked around at all the vampires and the human in the room with hard eyes. He shook his head tightly and looked down at the floor. "My guess is he already has her. It's over. Clarissa will be dead by the end of the night."

* * *

Matt picked up the bucket of half-eaten fries on his table, right about ready to clear it and clean it for the next customer when he looked up and nearly jumped out of his shoes. Caroline stood unexpectedly in front of him, a smile on her face as he recoiled from the scare.

"Jeez!" Matt scolded.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." She laughed. Matt sighed.

"It's okay, I just...didn't know you were here."

"Yeah, I wanted to try to catch you on your break so we could hang out," Caroline admitted, stepping forward with a smile. He shrugged.

"I...have lunch in an hour."

"Perfect! I will go run some errands and I will be right back," she told him as he leaned forward and he dipped down to kiss her. She bounced on her toes before pulling away. "See you in a bit."

"Okay." He watched Caroline walk away, but before she could get more than a few steps in, Matt called her back. "Uh, hey, Care?"

The blonde turned around hearing her nickname and walked back up to him with a shrug. "Yeah?"

Matt tried to form the words so they didn't sound so skeptical, so well-thought. He knew he couldn't let Caroline know he knew what she was, what the Salvatores were, what the King sisters were, either. He knew he couldn't give her any clue that would suggest he knew about vampires, that she hadn't really compelled him before. So he tried to phrase his next words as if he were that dumb human who didn't know his left foot from his right.

"Claire King was in here last night," he began, distracting himself by setting down the empty plates he had in his hands. Caroline waited for him to continue. "She was pretty drunk."

Caroline snorted. "That's Claire for you. But trust me, it's no harm. She has a...pretty high tolerance for alcohol. Wait, why were you here last night? I thought you got off work at three."

"I did. I left my jacket," Matt explained. She nodded, following along. "But when I came back to get it, she was at the bar talking to this guy and...I don't know, I've never seen him before. She was really drunk, though, and his friend took her outside. I just wanted to make sure she got home safe, that's all."

Now, that wasn't the whole story. He'd seen Claire talking to some guy beside her, a guy that he had never seen before. That part was all true. But what he neglected to mention was the small vile of yellow liquid he saw the friend slip into Claire's drink before she took a sip and started stumbling all over the place. He just hoped Caroline would know what to do with the sketchy information he explained to her, especially since vampires couldn't get 'really drunk' like he had tried to reason. He knew Caroline had caught on, even if she wasn't on the same page, once he had ended his statement and she realized that something was wrong. Her eyes went slightly wide and she nodded.

"Um, you know what, I'll just go stop by the boarding house and see if she's okay. I'll...um, I'll text you, okay?"

"Okay," Matt agreed. "Bye."

"Bye," Caroline rushed out before hurriedly leaving the Grill, letting Matt watch her as she left.

* * *

"Damon, take it easy!" Stefan shouted as he followed his brother outside, who was pacing like a madmen, gripping his hair in frustration with eyes wild and crazy.

"I knew I shouldn't have let her leave!" Damon growled to himself. "Stupid! So _stupid_!"

"Damon, we'll find her," Stefan tried, pulling himself to a stop in front of Damon, who was pacing rapidly back and forth while tapping his fingers to his leg. Beside him, Stefan felt Amelia rush up and shake her head.

"Christopher and I checked every inch of this property. She's not here, Stefan! She's not here."

"You're not helping," Stefan hissed at her. Amelia sighed and looked over at Damon, who was erratic. Stepping up to him, she clasped her hands down on his shoulders and looked into Damon's wild blue eyes.

"Stay. Calm!" Amelia yelled in his face, only causing Damon to frown and shove her hands off of his shoulders. Willingly, she conceded realizing that he had stopped pacing and panicking, so she stepped back to Stefan's side and shook her head. "What do we do now? Elijah's right, Klaus took her if she stepped out of this house."

"Or she ran," Stefan suggested optimistically. Damon scoffed.

"Oh, quit kidding yourself, Stefan! You're the one who convinced me the last time she got kidnapped that she would never run from us."

"She knew she has no chance of surviving Klaus if he captured her and used her for the ritual, Elijah made that clear. Maybe...maybe she did run, you know? Maybe she realized it would be best that she didn't tell us, that she just left and came back when it was all over so we wouldn't have to worry about her." Stefan looked at his girlfriend and his brother, trying desperately to make sense of the situation, but they both knew what he was spewing was bullshit. It took nearly a minute before Stefan swallowed thickly and began, "She didn't run, did she?"

"She wouldn't," Amelia whispered. Though it was meant to be assuring, it wasn't.

"I'm going to find her," Damon muttered under his breath, thinking to himself. "She's...she's got to be somewhere close. Somewhere I can get to in time—"

As Damon moved forward with his plan, about ready to go inside and grab his jacket, both Amelia and Stefan blocked him from going inside. Stefan shoved his brother back and shook his head.

"Damon, you try going after her and Klaus will kill you!"

"I don't care, Stefan!" Damon barked. "I'm done worrying about Elena and her martyr mission. I'm done listening to her. I'm getting Bonnie, we're killing Klaus, and this sacrifice is _not _going to happen. End of discussion."

"You can't do that! Damon!" Stefan forcefully grabbed Damon's arm and prevented him from entering the house. Damon spun around with fuming eyes. "Elena's made her decision. She refuses to let Bonnie die."

"I'm surrounded by idiots!" Damon stepped forward into Stefan's space. "You really think this is gonna go off without a hitch? That your ex-girlfriend in there is gonna survive because of some mysterious magical witch cure? No! And I'll be damned if I'm gonna let Claire go down with her, Stefan."

"No. No!" Once again, Stefan grabbed his brother as Damon tried to go inside, clamping down on Damon's shoulders and securing him in place. Damon tried to fight, but Stefan held his head straight and looked right into his brother's hurt eyes. "Hey! Look at me. I get it. You love her, Damon, I get it. I love her, too. She's my best friend and I don't want her to die. I don't want Elena to die, either. But if we do anything to stop this thing, we will end up dead, okay? All of us. Not just Claire and Elena...all of us. What good will we be then, huh?"

"And what do you suggest we do, then?" Damon spat. "Sit around like spectators at a football game? I'm not going to sit around and watch her die, Stefan, I won't do it. You might be willing to, but I'm not."

"She's _not _going to die!" Stefan assured, raising his voice slightly. Damon waited for him to elaborate, but instead, Stefan released him and turned around at Amelia, who was watching the two brothers with intent while they discussed her sister's fate. "Amelia, find Christopher and start researching. Tear every single book in this house off the shelves and start looking for a way to save her. Go through the Gilbert journals, too. We're not gonna let her die."

Amelia nodded carefully and walked past the two to go inside, where she did what she was asked to by Stefan. When she was gone, Stefan turned to Damon and studied his brother carefully, realizing that Damon was deciding whether to defy him or whether to trust him. All Stefan cared about was the fact that his brother didn't turn up dead before the night was over.

"Elena trusts Elijah," Damon said underneath his breath, looking down at the floor with narrowed eyes before meeting his brother's glance. "And even he said there was no way to bring her back if she's used in that ritual tonight."

Stefan held his breath, afraid that what would come out would scare them both. At last, he gathered up the confidence to stand straight, swallow, and assure, "We will find a way, Damon. Okay?"

And Damon contemplated again, thinking about flitting away at that very moment to track down the son of a bitch responsible and hold his heart his his hand. But Stefan was right, that would get him killed. And he would be no use to Claire if he was dead, so he nodded, and turned around to walk inside with Stefan behind him. But the moment they reentered the house, there was a loud, obvious slam from the front, causing Stefan and Damon to look at each other with immense concern before darting towards the noise.

"Get out!"

"Jenna? Jenna—"

"Get out!"

Damon and Stefan stopped at the foyer, where they saw Aunt Jenna wielding a crossbow against Alaric, who was standing inside the house with his hands up in the air as if he were surrendering. Elena, Elijah, Amelia, and Christopher soon joined the Salvatore brothers and the two opposing adults in the foyer as Alaric's breath shook seeing his girlfriend with his wooden stake crossbow in her hand.

"Jenna, put the crossbow down, okay?" Alaric tried to reason with her. "It's me."

"Stay away from me," Jenna growled.

"What's going on?" Elena demanded, looking back and forth between the two of them. Alaric desperately looked at all of his friends, waiting to attack him at the first chance.

"It's me, Elena. I swear, okay? He let me go. Klaus let me go!"

"Prove it," Damon suggested. Alaric let out a deep breath, looking to his friend in the dark corner and then looked around at everyone, all of them waiting for Alaric to prove it as Damon asked. Nodding, Alaric agreed.

"Okay...uh"—he looked at Jenna and immediately thought of something he knew she would understand—"first night you and I spent together, Jeremy walked in right when I was about to—"

"Okay!" Jenna shouted over the last parts of his proclamation, putting down the crossbow with a nod. "It's him."

"Why did he let you go?" Stefan asked.

"He wanted me to deliver a message." Alaric's eyes went to Elena. "The sacrifice happens tonight."

Upon this news, everyone silenced. Elena turned around at Elijah, who was less than surprised, and everyone began to think about what was starting. As they all settled with this news, they brought Alaric into the parlor, essentially deposing him on his version of what had happened over the past few days. Stefan paced in front of the couch, his arms crossed over his chest defensively.

"So you don't remember...anything that happened?"

"No," Ric confessed. "It's like I blacked out and woke up three days later. Katherine was there."

"She's under compulsion. Damon snuck her some vervain."

"And I snuck her more," Christopher added from his position beside the fireplace, as Damon had taken the first shot at standing behind the couch getting himself a glass of bourbon from the bar. Everyone turned to him, causing him to shrug. "I did it so I could get information and it worked. She should have plenty, we don't need to worry about her doing anything else that Klaus tries to compel her to do."

"Still, she can't leave until Klaus tells her she can," Amelia reminded them all. "Which...pretty much renders her useless, anyways."

Elena looked around, noticing that there was one person missing from their group. "Speaking of, where is Damon?"

"I saw him go upstairs," Jenna told her. With a sigh, Elena lifted herself from the couch and followed Jenna's instructions to go upstairs, where she went into Damon's room and left Alaric downstairs with the rest of them. However, he wasn't in his own room. Confused, Elena turned down the hallway and tried another, and this time she was successful. Pushing open Claire's door, she watched as Damon ransacked her things, as if going through her underwear drawer would give them some insight to where Klaus took her. The doppelgänger sighed and crossed her arms as she entered.

"You disappeared," she noted. Damon didn't even bother looking up at her, let alone speaking to her. "Damon, I know you're worried, but Claire can handle herself. My guess is, she'll escape before the ritual and everything will be okay. She will be fine, I promise."

Suddenly, Damon slammed one of Claire's drawers and looked up at Elena with fire in his eyes, causing Elena to jump back and a chill to run down her spine at his demeanor. He pointed a finger at her.

"Don't you dare tell me that everything's gonna be okay, Elena. I don't want to hear it anymore. You might be okay with dying to save your friends, but I sure as hell am not okay with letting _her _die. Which means that I sure as hell am not going to accept your promise as the words of God, himself!" Damon screamed. Elena flinched, but she tried to remain strong in her stance. Damon watched her slightly quiver, but he didn't care. In his eyes, she deserved it. "Just go. Go away."

"I know you're not that fond of me right now." Elena walked into the room as Damon turned his back, trying to get her out of his head. He stopped and listened, his back still to her as she slowly increased the volume of her voice. "In fact, I don't think you were ever really that fond of me. If anything, all you really cared about was tormenting Stefan because I look like Katherine, and now that Stefan and I are over, you couldn't care less about me. Claire was the one you really loved—the one you always loved."

Damon snorted. "That offend you?"

Elena shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I don't really like you much, either, if we're being honest. But I do like Claire. She's my friend, Damon. You think I want something bad to happen to her?"

Damon turned around sharply. "I think you're so eager to play the martyr that you're forgetting who's gonna get hurt."

"You'll find a way to save her, Damon, I know you will. You always do," Elena assured him, stepping forward carefully, observing Damon's broken gaze. "You love her and...and there's no motivation more powerful than loving someone. But even though I don't like you all that much, I don't want to see you dead...most of the time, anyways."

Damon frowned. "No one wants to see you dead, either." She cracked a small smile. "And that's why Bonnie should use her powers to kill Klaus before the ritual!"

Elena dropped her smile and grimaced at him. "I told you, Damon, that is not an option. Drop it."

"She can't die, Elena," he growled, causing Elena to lighten her anger and look at him the same way she did when she gave him the charmed hair comb. Damon shifted, his voice turning from a growl to a soft whisper. "She's my life. I can't lose her."

Elena gave him a faltering smile. "You won't."

Damon stared down at her, trying to think of a response, but he couldn't handle it anymore. One more second around Elena and he would lose it. Probably go insane, start crying again. And the last person on this Earth he wanted to see him cry was goodie-two-shoes Elena. Therefore, with a shake of his head, Damon passed her shoulder and sighed.

"I'm going out."

She turned around. "Where?"

With a grimace, Damon turned at her and gave her a pitiful look. "You know, Elena, I would stop spending so much time worrying about other people and spend a little time worrying about yourself. That elixir won't work, you're gonna die, and everything we have sacrificed will have been for nothing."

Elena stiffened, offended, but he didn't care. Without anything further, he walked out of the room, out of her sight. She was left to stand in the middle of Claire's cold room with Damon's cold words repeating in the back of her mind. She didn't believe him—the elixir would work, she would live, and everything she had done to save the people she loved would be celebrated. Claire would be alive and so would she. If she didn't have hope, what was left?

But then there was that part of her, the part that doubted. Elijah told her that the elixir might not work, and what if it didn't? What if she really did die? What then?

Suddenly, there was a knock, and Elena looked up to see Stefan standing at the doorway with a confused look on his face.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Elena studied his face and realized that he noticed something that made him ask the question, and when she let herself think about what it was, she felt something rolling down her face. A tear. Quickly, Elena reached up and wiped it off, shaking her head.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just...uh, worried about Claire."

Stefan walked into the room, looking around. "Well, she didn't take any of her stuff. If she really did flee, she would've at least taken a change of clothes."

Elena nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

Stefan removed his eyes from the walls around him and looked down at Elena, who was avoiding his gaze and trying to compose herself. He knew it, too, from all the time he spent with her knowing what made her tick. After a moment, Stefan stepped forward and began softly.

"Do you trust me, Elena?" he inquired. She looked up at him, confused.

"O-Of course I do, Stefan. Why?"

He looked around, slipping his hands into his pockets for a moment. "I want you to go somewhere with me."

"Stefan, I can't—"

"No, no, no. It's not far. It's just for the day; just the two of us. I promise."

Elena thought about declining again, but she saw the willingness in his eyes and she would be lying if she said she didn't want to go. She would go anywhere with him. She loved him unconditionally and no matter who she was with or who he was with, that would never change. And for the moment, she was with no one, loved no one. Though he loved someone else, she would never decline her love for him, no matter how hard she tried to forget it. And however wrong it was to want him to herself for the day, she didn't care. She wanted it.

So she nodded and let him take her wherever he wanted.

* * *

"Thanks," Damon mumbled at the bartender as he poured Damon a glass of cheap bourbon while Damon sat down at the bar.

"I'll have the same," said Alaric, who sat down next to Damon. For a moment, Damon was surprised that Alaric followed him, but he didn't bother to bring it up. He would never admit it, but he was glad that Alaric was back to being Alaric again. Silence ensued the both of them before Damon finally let out a long-winded sigh and, without looking at his friend, spoke tragically.

"I love her."

"Yeah. Yeah, you do."

"Gentlemen? Why so glum?" Before Damon could get a chance to respond, Alaric straightened and looked over Damon's head to see who had spoken to them, recognizing the face instantly upon seeing the third party. Damon turned his head to see the young, accented vampire standing at his side with a satisfactory grin resting on his lips. He groaned tiredly.

"Ugh. Klaus, I presume."

"In the flesh." Klaus looked up at Alaric. "Thanks for the loaner, mate."

With wild eyes, Damon got up from the stool begrudgingly and walked a few steps to face the enemy before him. "Any reason you stopped by to say hi?"

"I'm told you fancy my lovely Clarissa King."

"She's not _your _anything."

Klaus smiled. "Well, I just thought I'd remind you not to do anything you'll regret."

Damon tried not to falter in front of the Original, maintaining a very calm look while he thought of the words inside of his head before speaking them aloud.

"I don't suppose you and I could strike a deal?" Damon suggested, leaning up against the bar. Klaus's smile grew wider. "I mean...you have a vampire. Katherine's perfect for the role, trust me...no one would be happier to see her dead than I would. So, technically, you could just hand Claire over to me."

The British male laughed. "And why would I do that? Just so I can see Katerina dead?"

Damon shrugged. "That and Claire and I will get the hell out of town and you can carry on with your doom and gloom trying to break this curse of yours. I could care less about the rest." He swallowed and dropped the smug grin on his face to look Klaus seriously in the eye. "Just give Claire back. She doesn't have to die. That's all I want."

"You are kidding." Klaus dropped his own smile and looked up at Alaric. "He is kidding, right?"

"No. Not really," Ric answered, causing Klaus to turn to Damon sharply.

"Let me be clear. I have my vampire and that vampire is Clarissa King. There is no _deal _that would convince me to let her go so there's no point in asking again." Damon eyed Klaus suspiciously as the vampire growled, "The ritual will happen tonight. So if you want to live to see tomorrow, don't screw it up."

Without another word, Klaus turned and left the bar, causing Damon to reluctantly sit back down on the bar stool, a plot forming in his head. Damon exhaled heavily.

"That was fun."

"You're gonna screw it up, aren't you?" Alaric noted.

"I just have to find out where he's keeping her. If I find her, we can get out of here in...what, like two hours, tops," Damon mumbled to himself, knowing Alaric could hear the plan forming. "We can go back to Rio. No, wait, that would be way too obvious...or maybe it wouldn't be because it'd be the last place he'd expect. How about India? But it's way too hot this time of year. You think we should go to India or Rio?"

Damon turned to Alaric, who shook his head. "I think it won't matter. Because you'll be dead."

"But if we get out of here in time, he'll have to choose another vampire and deal with what he's got. And then he'll be dead...so it's a win-win!"

"For who? You'll still be dead."

Damon frowned. "You gonna help me or what?"

"Damon!" The dark-haired vampire jumped and turned around, watching as Caroline, who stopped to wave at Matt with a false smile on her face that caused him to be extremely suspicious, made her way over to Damon and Alaric, dropping her smile and letting out a panicked breath. "I've been looking everywhere for you. I went to the house and Amelia said Claire wasn't there."

Damon sighed. "You're a day late and a dollar short, Blondie. This is information we were already aware of. Klaus took her."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I got that part. Matt said something about it this morning and when I told Amelia, she already knew and when I asked her what she was gonna do about it she just said she was...trying to find a way to bring Claire back after the ritual. But I thought there was no way to bring her back, I thought she had to run."

Damon swallowed the rest of his bourbon. "Look at that...breaking the stereotype. Yes, Caroline, Amelia and Stefan have decided that instead of taking my advice they're just gonna cross their fingers and hope they find something."

She hesitated. "And what are _we_ doing?"

Before Caroline had even responded, Damon opened his mouth to tell her to get lost, but he was glad he didn't. One look at Caroline and he knew that she was willing to do whatever it took to get Claire back, and she wasn't the only one. Damon pointed at her with a stern finger.

"Get Claire's ex on the phone. Now." With a smile, Damon turned his head and looked over at Alaric, who was patiently observing.

"So...what do you say, Ric?" Damon prompted. Alaric took a moment, but soon sighed in defeat.

"What do you want me to do?"

* * *

Alaric twisted the key to his apartment in the lock, preying that it worked. Luckily for him, it did, and the door to the apartment opened to reveal Katherine peering around the corner, looking to see who it was. She relaxed when she saw it was only Alaric, and he crossed his arms at her as she scoffed.

"Look who's dumb enough to come back."

"Well, somebody had to invite them in," Alaric told her, causing Katherine to frown as she realized what was going on. Alaric turned his head. "Damon? Christopher? Would you like to, uh, come in?"

Damon sauntered into the apartment, cautiously passing the threshold before doing a theatric bounce into the apartment, causing Katherine to begin plotting her attack. Christopher followed closely behind and Caroline stood at the door, not needing to have been invited inside. Immediately upon Damon's entrance, Katherine flashed at him, pushing him up against the wall beside the door.

"Are you trying to get me killed?!"

Damon frowned and grabbed a hold of her throat as he pushed them both up to a wooden pillar in the middle of Alaric's loft, taking no shit from his own ex.

"I gave you vervain. Now I'm here to collect. We've got it from here, Ric," he called out over his shoulder. Alaric knotted his eyebrows.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Get back at the house and make sure everyone is safe."

"Okay..." Alaric reluctantly turned and Caroline turned around, guarding the door to make sure that no one came inside. Katherine shoved the Salvatore off of her so that Damon fell back beside Christopher. She looked between the two of them.

"The two of you working together? After what I told him?" Katherine scoffed, her eyes drifting to Christopher and then back at Damon. "What are you up to, Damon?"

"Tell us where Klaus is keeping Claire," Christopher demanded, earning Katherine's attention. The brunette laughed, crossing her arms.

"Ha! What would make you think I'd tell you that? Besides the fact that I won't _let _you interfere, mainly because it'd mean he'd kill both of you and everyone you two have ever met, why in the world would I want to save _her_?"

Damon groaned. "Come on, Katherine, this whole vengeance thing is getting pretty old. We all know you have some respect for Claire and that you actually do care whether she lives or dies. So tell us where she is so we can save her."

Katherine walked around him. "Yeah, I care whether she lives or dies, Damon. I care about the fact that she's gonna die tonight." The vampire turned at the two men and smiled. "I'm already planning to throw a celebration party. You wanna come?"

Suddenly, Christopher flashed forward, pulling Katherine to the ground by wrapping his hand around her throat like Damon had before, pinning her to the floor and tightening his grip. Katherine choked and clawed at his hand, but she was weakened from the vervain, enough to delay her escape. He knelt down and shook his head.

"You're gonna tell us where she is Katherine, and I'll tell you why. If she dies, I will never forgive you. Eventually, you'll escape from Klaus and you'll try to make it up to me. Apologize, tell me you love me, spin this whole story about how you were doing the things you did to protect me. Well guess what? I'm gonna remember this moment, the moment where you chose whether or not to save my wife, and depending on your answer, I'll either forgive you or I'll kill you. So what'll it be, Katherine?"

She choked softly, thinking about his words as Christopher stared her down from above. Katherine narrowed her eyes into cat-like slits before grabbing hold of his wrist and, fortunately for her, Christopher let up, removing his hand before she had the chance to force him off. Coughing once, Katherine straightened up and Christopher got to his feet, waiting for her response. But if Katherine was anything, she was dramatic, and therefore she let the room hang in silence for minutes as she rose to stand and looked at both Damon and Christopher with pity.

"She's got you both wrapped around her little finger. It disgusts me," Katherine snarled before wiping her mouth and turning her eyes to Christopher. "She's in the tomb, okay? Klaus has Tyler Lockwood, too."

Caroline blinked and looked over her shoulder into the apartment as she heard the words. "Wait, what? Tyler's back?"

"Thank you," Damon chirped, ignoring Caroline as he stepped off to the side and exited the apartment. Christopher followed closely behind after locking eyes with Katherine, confused yet still pleased, and they closed the door of the apartment to leave Katherine to her bidding and get out of sight before Klaus came back. Damon nudged Caroline with his elbow. "Come on, Blondie."

"What about me?" Christopher asked as he closed the door and watched Damon and Caroline turn around. Damon sighed. "Damon, I'm coming with you."

"No, you need to go home, Christopher."

"Damon—"

Suddenly, Damon flashed forward, yanking Christopher up by his jacket collar. "What if this doesn't work, huh? What then? Then, Klaus'll take her, he'll kill her, he'll kill me, and all of this would have been for nothing. So you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna go back to the house, you're gonna get on the phone with Bonnie, and you're gonna figure out a Plan B so she can live. You understand me?"

Christopher shoved Damon off of him, but Damon was hardly fighting the other vampire. Jerking his jacket back onto his shoulders so that it sat smoothly, Christopher ran his tongue along his teeth and reluctantly nodded.

"Fine. I'll go back to the house." Damon nodded and watched as Christopher pointed a finger at him. "But if you screw this up and somehow manage to get alive and she ends up dead, I'll kill you myself."

Damon could've come up with a comeback, but he didn't have the energy. Christopher left, speeding down the staircase to get back to the boarding house while Caroline waited for Damon to turn around and nod so they could rescue Claire.

* * *

When Claire finally came to, it was extremely clear to her what had happened to her. Drugged by a witch, distracted by Klaus. It was clever, too, not to mention whatever witch potion they'd given her to knock her out cold before she'd even made it to the mysterious witch's car from the Grill. Her body felt as if it had been run over several times and she was groggy as hell; weak, too.

"Claire, right?"

The voice she heard was nothing but an echo in her head. It took her so long to get out of whatever funk she was in, she was sure it had been at least a minute before she was able to respond properly and make out the fuzzy figure in front of her. Still, everything was shaking and the sounds in her head were mediocre at best.

"Mmmm...yeah. Yeah." Claire cleared her throat and looked in front of her through slitted eyes. "And you...oh. Lockwood boy. T-T—"

"Tyler," he filled in. She nodded, despite the headache she had.

"I was getting to that." She forced her eyes open wide and looked up, where she realized she was chained up against a stone wall. Weak, she tugged at the chains, but they wouldn't give. "Damn."

"I already tried," he informed her. She scoffed and tried again, feeling some of her strength return, but it was hardly enough. Regardless, she didn't let that stop her.

"Yeah, but you're not a...not a...ugh!" Claire trailed off when she realized her limbs were way too weak to try and break the chains off her hands. Defeated and tired, she slouched against the wall. "Okay. You win. How long have I been out?"

Tyler shook his head, but she couldn't see him. She had her eyes closed while she rested for a moment to regain what little strength she had from the massive vervain drug the witch dropped on her. "You've been unconscious since they put me here which was...well, I don't know, probably a few hours ago."

Claire opened her eyes again. "Was it nighttime when he took you?"

"Who is 'he'?"

"Just answer the question."

"No. It was the morning. I came back into town to see my mom. She had an accident," Tyler explained to her. Claire shifted herself so that she was sitting straight against the uncomfortable wall and sighed.

"Oh, that's great. So I've been gone for an entire day." She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Whatever that witch gave me, it was strong. I guess it had to be, anyways...magical blood and all. You know, I don't even know how to use it!"

Tyler watched as the vampire in front of him started to hysterically laugh, and it was creeping him out. As Claire's laughter echoed through the hallway, Tyler shifted uncomfortably and tried, "Um, Claire...are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" she repeated through her hysteria. Tyler observed with a look of disdain as her laughter turned into anger. "I-I don't know, Tyler, are you okay? Are you okay?! We were taken by a psycho witch working with Klaus who will sacrifice us on an alter to release a centuries-old curse in a few hours time! Why? Well, for me, I'm just an energy drink. An eternal energy drink at that. See, you're just the werewolf. There's nothing special about your blood! But mine? Oh, see, he can't live without mine. Because God forbid Klaus isn't already the strongest vampire on this entire planet! So am I okay? No! I am not okay! And for that matter, neither are you!"

The entire tomb went silent, filled with echoes of her shouting. Tyler stared at her from across the way, observing Claire as she relaxed and shook her head.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout," she admitted, shifting again. He swallowed.

"It's cool." She rolled her eyes, but he inhaled sharply. "Uh, just one question...who's Klaus?"

"Who's—?"

Claire looked at him in utter disbelief, but then she remembered something. Caroline had told her about Tyler a while back before all of the Klaus nonsense really started to kick into gear. Tyler left Mystic Falls before ever finding out about Klaus because Stefan made her keep the fact that Tyler knew about vampires a secret from Damon. And after Jules kidnapped Caroline and Claire, Damon, Stefan, and Amelia saved her with the help of Elijah's witches, he and Jules fled town. He didn't know anything about Klaus. He was utterly clueless.

"Oh, Tyler." She let out a heavy sigh. "You really shouldn't have come back."

* * *

For a secret hiding place, the tomb was unusually poorly secured on Klaus's part. Damon and Caroline walked the grounds of the cemetery with no trouble and when they reached the tomb, there was no trouble there, either. It was practically a cakewalk. Damon looked over his shoulder at every turn as he and the blonde neared the tomb just in case someone attacked, and surely enough, when they were inches away from the entrance, there was a voice in the distance.

"Which one are you trying to save? The blonde or the wolf?" Unimpressed, Damon and Caroline turned around to face a witch that revealed itself from the woods, circling them with a small smile. "Did you really think Klaus would leave them unprotected?"

Damon shrugged. "Wishful thinking."

The vampires and the witch stood across from each other at a standstill before Damon flitted over, gaining the upper hand on the witch by wrapping his strong hand around the witch's throat and throwing him to the ground. As Damon fought with the witch, he choked out, "Caroline, go!"

Caroline wasted no time. She flashed down to the tomb and went to find Claire and Tyler just as the witch managed to fight Damon, using his powers to force Damon off. Damon flew back and hit the wall of the tomb, landing on his stomach, able to get a moment of his strength back before the witch in front of him hit him with immense power, causing Damon to scream aloud from the pain in his head. He tried to get up, but he couldn't.

And then it stopped. It stopped right where there was a loud shot, and when Damon was able to focus on anything but the mind-numbing pain in his head, he looked up and found the witch on his knees with blood soaking through his shirt from a bullet wound. But it didn't quite kill him, and therefore Damon flashed up and snapped his neck faster than the witch could get a chance to try another power move again. The witch's body fell to the ground, lifeless, as Damon looked up to see who the shooter was.

Surprisingly, it was Matt Donovan.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked him, his eyes narrowed as he recovered from the shock of seeing innocent Matt Donovan standing over the witch's body with a rifle in his hand. Matt didn't answer.

"Where's Caroline?"

Damon sighed. "Listen, man. Not a good time to play the hero."

Matt cocked his gun and pointed it at the vampire in front of him while looking down at the witch by his feet. "Where is she? And what did he do to her?"

Damon held up his hands defensively. "She's helping me rescue Claire, okay?"

Matt opened his mouth to ask another question, but Damon didn't give him a chance. Moving forward, the vampire snatched the rifle out of the human's hand and knocked him over the head with it, causing Matt to fall to the ground, unconscious. Standing over Matt's body, Damon disassembled the gun so when the kid woke up, he wouldn't have anything to shoot people with. But as he did so, he looked down at the ground at the bullets he had expelled from the gun and slowly fell to his knees, grabbing the bullets in his hand. They weren't regular bullets—not the kind you get from the store. They were wooden bullets, carved by hand.

And that scared the shit out of Damon. But he didn't have time to think about it; all he had to do was save Claire.

* * *

"The whole Sun and Moon curse is fake?" the wolf repeated back to Claire as she explained to him what she had learned up until the moment she had been taken by Klaus. She shrugged.

"Yep. He still needs to do the sacrifice, though, but it's not for all vampires or all werewolves. It's for him. I think Elena said something about him being both." The blonde shook her head tightly. "I don't know much. All I know is what she told me when she came back with Elijah, Klaus's brother."

"And you think that's why they grabbed us? For the sacrifice?"

"I don't think. I know."

"He's going to kill us?"

"Do I have to repeat the whole goddamn story, Lockwood? Yes, he's going to kill us," Claire stated irritably. She listened as Tyler huffed and then rolled her eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

He scoffed, but didn't respond for a while, causing them both to fall painstakingly silent. After that time, Tyler took in a heavy breath and began. "This whole time I've been gone, Jules has been helping me come to terms with what I am. How to deal with it. Guess none of it matters anymore."

"You know," Claire started, her voice nothing but a soft whisper, "I think that all the time. None of it matters. When you live an eternity, it can get pretty messy—figuring out what matters and what doesn't. For example, my friendship with Caroline...you see, that matters. Because living an eternity without a friend, without anyone to confide in...well, that's just sad. Then you're really all alone. You can live without a boyfriend, but you can't live without a friend. But the rest of it, love...passion...hatred, what really matters? Fall in love with a human, they're dead in a century, anyways. Fall in love with a vampire, there's no way it's gonna last. Eternity is a long time to be in love with someone...too much time, actually. None of it matters." She paused, looking off into the dark halls of the tomb with a scowl on her lips. "And then you get drugged, end up in a tomb, and chained to a wall to await your certain death. Suddenly, everything matters. Have you ever been in love, Tyler?"

Tyler stared at her, trying to see where she was getting at. But she wasn't looking at him. Instead, she was looking off into the distance as if whatever was down the dark path was more important than speaking with him. He shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe," he admitted. She turned her eyes and met his glance.

"Caroline?" He didn't answer. "When she told me you left, I could tell she was angry. It was because you left without saying goodbye. Why would you do it? Leave without saying goodbye?"

Tyler swallowed. "I knew she hated me."

"The line between love and hate is extremely thin. Trust me, I would know." She smiled to herself. Tyler watched her closely as she chuckled under her breath and leaned her head against the wall with a sigh. "Oh, what am I doing? I'm the definition of a cliché, reflecting on my tragic life while I wait for some manipulated witch to come and haul my ass to the ritual site. Poor me, I've never told anyone I loved them in my entire life...well, anyone other than family, including Stefan. Is that so bad?"

Tyler chuckled, himself. "I guess some people just aren't wired that way."

She swallowed back a pain in her throat. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

Tyler and Claire sat across from each other, both of them acknowledging the wiseness of the other, just as they heard a loud grunt and the door to the tomb was pushed open. From the dark hallway, they watched as Caroline rushed into where they were behind held, running a hand through her hair when she saw her sire and her ex-friend sitting on the floor, chained up like animals.

"Caroline?" Tyler asked, surprised. He shifted straight and watched her as she looked over at him with a sigh of relief.

"Tyler! What the hell are you doing back here?" she demanded, but before he had a chance to respond, she turned and looked at Claire. "Claire! You look like hell."

Claire scoffed. "Jeez, thanks, Caroline."

Caroline opened her mouth to speak, but someone else took the words out of it. Damon walked up by her side, causing Caroline to turn to him as he said, "Your boyfriend's outside with a rifle loaded with wooden bullets. You have some explaining to do."

Caroline blinked, shocked. "What, Matt?"

He didn't answer her. After hissing the threat to Caroline, Damon spotted Claire on the floor and hurriedly walked over to her, bending down to break off the chains that bound her hands.

"Matt knows about you?" Tyler asked Caroline, who was starting to walk towards him, reeling over the piece of information she was given. As she knelt down, she shook her head and tried to explain herself while Damon broke off the first chain at her wrist.

"What do you mean Matt had a rifle with wooden bullets?" Claire asked, her voice softer than she meant it to be. Damon hushed her.

"Shh. Tomorrow's problem. Let me just get you out of here."

"Damon, you can't be here right now..." Claire trailed off, her mouth dry. "You...you'll get killed for this. You know you will."

Damon broke off the second chain on her other hand. "I don't care. No way was I gonna let you die tonight."

"I'm not gonna let you die, either," she argued as he helped her up from the ground and nodded.

"Good. If the both of us aren't dead, we're both happy. We'll go to..." She slipped in his arms and he grasped her tightly, fighting gravity to hold her upright as he finished his sentence half-heartedly, "...Rio, Mumbai...freaking Iceland for all I care. As long as we're both not dead, okay? Can you walk?"

"I can try," she admitted, letting Damon throw one of her arms around his shoulders so that she had leverage to walk. His fingers gripped her waist tightly and he turned around to see Caroline break the first of Tyler's chains.

Immediately, Damon snapped, "Blondie, what the hell are you doing? Leave him here! It's gonna be dark soon and if he's not restrained, we're his next meal!"

"I'm not leaving without him," Caroline demanded. Damon wanted to think she was bluffing, but he knew that Caroline wouldn't leave until she had Tyler at her side. Damn morals. Damon sighed, exhausted, and looked at Tyler.

"How fast can you get the hell out of here?"

"I need to get to my family's cellar," Tyler replied. "I can lock myself up."

"I'll help," Caroline added, waiting for Damon to let her break the other chain. Biting his cheek, Damon slowly nodded.

"Don't make me regret this," he threatened them as Caroline hurriedly broke the chain and helped Tyler up from the ground. Damon and Claire were halfway out of the tomb by the time Caroline and Tyler got up from the floor and started to walk out. Once everyone was on the higher ground, Caroline left Tyler's side and rushed over to Matt, who was lying on the forest ground, groaning in agony.

"Matt!" Caroline exclaimed as she put her hands on his face and looked back at Damon, appalled. "Hey, did you hit him?!"

"Did you already forget the part about the gun with the wooden bullets?" Damon barked. Before Caroline could object, behind Damon and Claire, Tyler groaned loudly, causing Caroline to look up with immense worry.

"Tyler?"

"It's starting."

"Ugh." Damon tightened his grip on Claire and jerked his head to the side while looking at Caroline. "Grab Boy Wonder and let's go."

* * *

Stefan and Elena had been out for the entire day. He had taken her to a mountain only a few miles away from the Salvatore home, and instead of cheating and carrying her to the top, he insisted that they both hike it. They spent the day reminiscing and inching towards what Stefan really wanted to talk about—how she felt with her fate. At first, Elena neglected that anything was wrong, refusing to talk about it. Then, after they'd reached the top and she saw the sun set peacefully over the horizon, she broke. First it was a tear, then it was two, and then it was a waterfall. She was so uncertain of her fate and it scared her. It scared him, too, but he tried to stay strong for her. Stefan would be lying if he didn't admit that something, some feeling, had resurfaced for her inside of him, but he knew just as well as she did that by morning she may not be alive. At the end of their hike, after Elena had broken down and told him how she really felt, how scared she was, Stefan soothed her and let her drink the elixir that would later determine her fate. Then they hiked back down and he drove her back to the boarding house.

When they arrived at the house, he walked around his car and opened the door for her, helping her get out. She breathed carefully and smiled slightly.

"Thanks for today."

Stefan nodded, but he didn't need to say anything. He and Elena stared at each other for a long, wonderful moment before Stefan saw something out of the corner of his eye, causing him to push Elena behind him and step in front, protecting her. Before them, a well-dressed vampire stood, cocking his head at them.

"You got me all nervous," the British vampire confessed. "I thought maybe you'd done something stupid. You ready, my dear?"

Klaus looked at Elena, who was hidden behind Stefan's shoulder, but she nodded to him. "I'm ready."

Slowly, Elena started to walk forward, attempting to go around Stefan and reach Klaus. Instead, she watched Stefan's arm quickly jump out, wrapping it behind him so that he shielded her from the evil vampire in front of them, determined not to go down without a fight.

"No," Stefan growled.

Klaus grimaced. "I wouldn't. No reason for you to die, too."

"No!" Elena maneuvered her way around Stefan's arm and stepped in front of him, her breath short and panicked. She wouldn't let Stefan die, not for her. "Stefan, hey! Hey. It's fine, it's fine. I'll go. No one needs to get hurt. There's no reason for you to get hurt."

But Stefan's eyes never left Klaus's as they watered over with her words. She knew he wanted to do something stupid, but she wouldn't let him. And so she stood on her toes and against all her morals, she kissed him. She knew it was wrong, she knew that it wasn't her right. She knew he was in love with another girl. But regardless of the fact that if she didn't stop him from protecting her that he would be killed, she wanted to kiss him. She wanted one last kiss, one last time. She loved him with all of her heart and it was impossible for her to leave him without knowing that he knew how she felt. So she smiled and pulled away, finally earning his attention as she stood back on her heels and whispered quietly.

"I love you."

Elena didn't expect him to say it back. She'd said her peace, she'd memorized his face. If she died, she would die knowing she made herself clear. She didn't need him to say anything, but he did. He reached up and stroked the hand that was holding his face and nodded down at her. She could tell the words were catching in his throat, but it was only because he didn't want her to go. He didn't want to say those words and know that they were his last. He loved her, too, no matter what they'd gone through. Therefore, he leaned forward and whispered quietly.

"I love you."

Elena stared at him, a soft yet sad smile on her lips, and he tried not to cry. Leaning forward more, he pressed a last kiss to her lips before pulling away, both of them sniffling as tears fell out of their eyes. Elena, trying to keep from breaking down as she had before, nodded and grabbed his hand.

"Close your eyes," she instructed. Stefan looked up at Klaus, who was waiting patiently, and then back down at Elena, who was waiting for him to do what she asked. "Close your eyes."

Reluctantly, Stefan let his eyes flutter closed, and Elena took a deep breath, stiffening as she watched him keep them closed and waited for her to leave. He kept a firm grip on her hand, but she stepped back, slipping out of his grasp. Finger by finger, she fell away from him as if she were a ghost, and when he finally opened his eyes when he could feel nothing but the cold of the night resting on the warmth of his hand, Klaus was gone, Elena with him.

"There you are!" Alaric called at Stefan as the younger Salvatore stormed into the house looking for his brother. "Where have you been? Where's Elena?"

Unintentionally, Stefan ignored Alaric and looked at Amelia, who was surrounded by a pile of at least three dozen books. They were all tossed over and ripped open, and she stood the minute she saw Stefan enter the parlor. Stefan looked at her seriously.

"Tell me you found something," he pleaded. Amelia was silent, but shook her head causing Stefan to let out an exhausted, panicked sigh and start to pace with his hands on his hips. He turned around at Alaric. "Damon. Where's Damon?"

"He went to save Claire, Stefan," Amelia told him. Stefan widened his eyes.

"That'll get him killed!"

"I tried telling him that, but he wouldn't listen. It's Claire," Alaric reasoned. But Stefan shook his head and pulled out his phone, immediately dialing Damon's number.

* * *

"What's happening?" Matt asked, clueless, as he watched Tyler slumped over and yelping every time the transition struck at him. Caroline kept looking back, trying to make sure that Tyler was doing okay. Damon was barely hanging on, holding Claire up at his side and stumbling through the forest with her. He didn't have time for a wolf attack.

"He better not wolf out on us," Damon warned, but before he could say more, his cell phone started ringing in his pocket. Claire was walking on her own, but she still needed his body as leverage to remain standing when her legs tried to give on her. While trying to hold her upright, Damon held the phone to his ear and shook his head. "Bad time, little bro."

_"What the hell are you doing?"_

"What am I doing? Well, as a matter of fact, in addition to saving your best friend, I managed to screw up all the ingredients Klaus needs for his entire ritual—whoa!" Claire slipped, tripping over a branch, and Damon caught her again, stilling them on the rough terrain. He could hear Stefan speaking through the phone, but he didn't care. When he put the phone back to his ear, he said, "Look, just tell Elena to stay put. The sacrifice isn't gonna happen tonight."

_"She's already gone, Damon," _Stefan told his brother tensely on the other end of the line. Damon widened his eyes.

"What?"

_"Klaus came. He took her." _

Damon bit down on his cheek, trying to refrain from screaming. Did Elena annoy the hell out of him? Sure. But he meant what he said earlier in the morning—he didn't want to see her dead.

"I'll take care of it," Damon snapped before ending the call and slipping the phone into his pocket. Right as the call ended, he heard something snap, causing Tyler to moan aloud, screaming in agony at the pain.

"Tyler!" Matt shouted. Tyler bucked and screamed again as the bones in his wrist flexed, causing his hands to bend in ways they shouldn't.

"Oh, God!" He yelped and landed on his hands and knees on the forest ground. Damon and Claire looked at each other, both of them knowing what came next. The transitioning wolf looked up at Caroline. "I don't know if I can hold it off. Get out of here!"

Caroline took a tentative step forward. "Tyler, it'll be okay."

"Go!"

"You've got time," she tried. "We're almost there, just—"

"It's happening faster." He whimpered as his bones shifted again, but Caroline refused to leave him behind. Abruptly, Damon felt Claire flash out of his grip, her vampire movement slow and choppy as she stumbled over in front of Tyler, her knees weak from all the strength she exerted flashing over to him. Damon moved to go to her, but he was too late. Things were happening too fast.

"Tyler, you can do this," she pleaded. "Just focus. Stay calm. The calmer you are, the more you delay this so...so don't think about it. Think about what we talked about in the tomb. Think about that, huh? Come on, you can do this. We can make it. You can—"

"Claire!" Damon shouted, but before she could get herself out of harm's way, she watched as Tyler's eyes turned the golden yellow of a wolf's and he moved to strike at her. She was far enough away that Damon was just in the nick of time, tacking Tyler's half-human body as he went animalistic on them all. Tyler flipped them, pinning Damon underneath while Damon moved his hands to try and choke Tyler out, fighting to keep Tyler away from any part of his skin. Tyler struggled with power, as did Damon, and he barred his teeth and chomped at any chance he got. As Tyler's chomping became more and more ferocious, Damon managed to slip his foot back and kick Tyler off of him with all his vampire strength, causing the transitioning wolf to blow back a few yards. Damon rose from the ground, and immediately, Claire rushed over to him.

"Damon!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide and worried as she reached out for him. Damon gripped her shoulders and nodded assuringly.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." He grabbed Claire again, swinging her arm around his shoulder so that he could help her walk again.

"Get out of here!" Tyler snarled at them all, trying desperately to suppress the urges inside of him. Damon turned to Caroline and Matt hastily.

"Get to the Lockwood cellar," he instructed them. "If it held him in, it'll keep him out. If it doesn't, use these." He produced the few wooden bullets he had pulled out of Matt's gun earlier, handing them to the human, who took the bullets without fail and loaded them into his gun. Caroline was weary, but Claire shook her head.

"Go, Caroline." Matt already started to walk backwards towards the cellar, but Caroline was still reluctant. "Go!"

Finally, Caroline conceded, pulling Matt with her as she raced through the forest. Damon and Claire watched them as they went and a few moments later, Claire turned to look up at Damon. She opened her mouth as if to say she was okay to run, but Damon one-upped her. In one fluid motion, he pulled her up into his arms and took off, trying to get as far away as he could before Tyler full-on wolfed out and killed them all. In a few seconds, he managed to get them out of the woods, out of the cemetery, and all the way out to his car on the side of the road. Once in front of the blue '69 Camaro, Damon set Claire down on her feet and took a quick breath that he barely had time for. He reached into his pocket and produced the keys, setting them in her hand.

"Go," he instructed her, gesturing to the car. "Drive. Get the hell out of here...I don't want to know where you go, just leave. When this is over, I'll find you."

He turned to leave, but she stopped him by reaching out and gripping his arm tightly. "No, wait! Damon, come with me."

"I can't," Damon argued, turning around by force. She shook her head, refusing to let him go. "Look, Claire, Stefan said Klaus took Elena. I just ruined Klaus's ritual...I need to find her and get her somewhere safe."

"What about getting _you _somewhere safe?" she challenged, panicked. Damon looked up, avoiding her eyes. He didn't have time to do what she wanted because she asked for it. "Damon, you just _ruined _Klaus's ritual! He'll kill you! Please don't go. If you go, you'll die. You can't—"

Damon cut her off, bending down and taking his lips to hers roughly, causing her to stop mid-sentence. It was a short kiss, a messy one, but when he pulled away, he slipped out of her grasp and flashed away into the night, not giving her time to argue anymore with him. When she realized he was gone, she shook her head desperately.

"No. No, no, no! Damon! Damon! Damn it!" she shouted, but he was long gone. She ran a frustrated hand through her hair, walking around in an aimless circle before the anger exploded. She kicked the side of Damon's car with extreme force, and the metal clanged loudly. When she looked down at it, she realized she had made a dent the size of a crater in the side of Damon's vehicle. It didn't matter. That sudden burst of strength caused her to wobble in her steps and nearly faint, but before she could, someone caught her and lifted her to an upright position, turning her around so she rested her back against the car.

"Hey. Hey, you're okay. You're okay." Claire wiped her forehead free of sweat and she forced her eyes to focus, realizing that it was Christopher standing in front of her. He reached out and tried to help clean up the perspiration on her cheeks, but she swatted his hands away.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she snapped angrily.

"I followed him here. I had to know you were okay," he replied, feeling the skin on her cheeks. "Shit, Claire, you're burning up. Come on, we need to get you out of here."

"I-I'm not going anywhere with you," she refused, turning her head. "He told me to drive. Drive, drive, drive."

"Clarissa, you are in no condition to drive."

"But—"

"Get in the damn car, Claire. I'll drive. I'll drive," he promised, but she was so feverish she wasn't able to argue with him. She let him lead her around the car to the passenger seat and she climbed inside as he flitted around and quickly jumped into the car, turning the key into the ignition and hitting the gas pedal as hard as he could, the tires screeching as he drove them both into the darkness, trying to get as far away as he could.

* * *

"Where's Maddox?" Klaus demanded as he slammed the door of Alaric's apartment and looked at Katherine, who was moping around at the table by the door. "He should be back by now."

"I don't know," she lied, but he was barely listening to her. Without replying, Klaus took his phone and plugged it into his laptop, where he watched something Katherine couldn't see on the computer screen. She cocked an eyebrow. "What are you doing? Where's Elena?"

"I sent her off with Greta. It's almost time." Just as the words escaped his mouth, the door to Alaric's apartment swung open, and Klaus, though surprised, leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh. "I wasn't aware you'd been invited in."

Damon stood behind the Original, and Katherine stood from behind Damon, realizing that Klaus was about to get real angry _real _fast. However, Damon didn't seem all that concerned.

"I've come here to tell you that you have to postpone the ritual," he threatened.

Klaus frowned. "Hours ago, all you wanted was your girl released."

"Yeah, but I already saved her. And on top of that, I rescued your werewolf and killed your witch."

The Original abruptly stood on his feet, turning around at the confident, ordinary vampire. "Excuse me?"

"And you can kill me for it. I don't care. It was _all _me."

The room went completely silent before Klaus, with a small smile resting on his lips and without tearing his eyes from Damon, spoke to the girl behind the dark-haired, brave hero. "Katerina, give us a moment."

Katherine, without a word, nodded and slowly left the room, her eyes still lingering on the two feuding vampires in the loft. Damon waited for her to leave and looked back at Klaus, who stepped forward as an attempt to intimidate. Damon kept his ground steady, refusing to give in.

"I've heard about you," Klaus started, his voice soft and articulate. "The crazy, impulsive vampire in love with his childhood sweetheart; a woman that refuses to love him back." Carelessly, Klaus turned and walked away from Damon with a shrug. "I knew one of you would try to stop me. It was just a 50/50 guess on who. Would it be the one in love with my doppelgänger or the one in love with my vampire? Or maybe it'd be a surprise. Maybe the one in love with my doppelgänger would choose to save his best friend, as well. And perhaps, maybe the one in love with my vampire would choose to rescue the woman his brother loves, too, out of the kindness of his heart. Oh, well. It doesn't really matter, does it?" He walked over to the computer he had just been watching and turned up the volume. Damon watched the screen as a woman yelled, screaming in agony. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he waited as Klaus chuckled under his breath. "The nice thing about werewolves is they tend to travel in packs. Need a closer look?"

Klaus shut the laptop and removed his phone, tossing it to Damon in the middle of the room. Damon looked at the screen on the phone, hearing the nails-on-chalkboard screaming of the woman, and when he looked down, he realized that it was, in fact, another werewolf. He tried not to show his defeat.

"Jules," Damon noted bitterly.

"When you spend a thousand years trying to break a curse, you learn a thing or two," Klaus growled as he circled Damon like a shark would his prey. "First rule—_always_ have a back-up. Back-up werewolf, back-up witch..."

"Back-up vampire," Damon realized. Klaus smiled.

"I've got that one covered, too."

And just like that, everything in Damon's vision went completely black.

* * *

"Hey. Damon." The voice was faint, but Damon could hear it as he started to slowly regain consciousness. He could feel something sliding down his throat and the voice got louder. There was also an unpleasant sting on his cheek. "Hey! Hey! Damon!"

"Ow," Damon protested, slowly opening his eyes. "What the hell happened?"

Katherine sighed while Damon forced himself to sit up. "He's gone. He went to do the ritual. I'm sorry, I had to! He would have known that I was on vervain if I didn't do it."

"Do what?" He groaned, half-listening to what she was saying. Katherine's breath grew rapid.

"Klaus. He made me call her to lure her out. He _needed _another vampire."

"Who did you call?" Damon asked. Katherine hesitated, causing Damon to widen his eyes, regardless of the weakness he felt regaining consciousness. He reached out and gripped Katherine's arm tightly, growling, "Who did you call, Katherine?"

* * *

"Where are we going?" Elena complained as she stumbled around in the darkness, avoiding tripping over rocks and twigs that she could feel under her feet and barely see with her less-than-standard vision.

"This way," the witch in front of her explained. Greta Martin, that was her name, Elena realized. She'd heard Klaus call her Greta and she remembered Bonnie telling her about Luka and his family.

"You're Luka's sister, aren't you? I heard about you. He and your father were looking for you."

"They were wasting their time," Greta told her flatly. "I wasn't lost."

Elena stopped, realizing the answer was strange. But Greta moved forward, and in the darkness, the witch was the only thing that she could see. But inevitably, she ended up tripping, grunting in frustration as she growled, "God, I can't see anything!"

Greta stopped and Elena copied her. Suddenly, flames bursted all around them, causing Elena to gasp out of surprise as the fires burned and lighted her path. They were standing on rocky terrain at a dead end and before them, a body was lying on the floor, unconscious. It took Elena a moment to realize who it was, but when she did, her eyes widened.

"Jenna?" Elena rushed forward, dropping to her aunt's side. "Jenna? Jenna! Hey, hey! Jenna! Come on!" She used two fingers to measure her pulse, but she couldn't find her a heartbeat. Elena's eyes watered over as she realized what had happened and she turned around at Greta in disbelief. "He killed her? Why?! I-I did everything that he asked!"

Before Greta could respond, there was a loud gasp, and Elena fell over as Jenna gasped to life and rolled on her side, feeling around her as she looked around, confused with her surroundings. Elena's mouth dropped in shock.

"She's not dead," said Greta with a smile on her lips. "She's in transition."

* * *

"He should have used me!" Damon muttered as he forced himself up from the floor. "Why didn't he use me?!"

"He couldn't!" Katherine tried, standing up to look him in the eye. "Damon, he said you were as good as dead."

"What does that even mean?"

"What does it mean?" She narrowed her eyes and reached forward, grabbing his arm and pulling up the sleeve of his shirt. "What is this, Damon?"

Damon looked down, still reeling over the unconsciousness and the fatigue of the day, but when he saw what was on his arm, he froze. His veins pulsed and his skin bubbled and instantly he recognized what was on his arm. He recognized it all to well as he looked up at Katherine slowly, wishing the words didn't have to come out of his mouth.

"It's a werewolf bite."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**grapejuice101: **And here's another! Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for the review!

**NicoleR85: **Thank you! Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **Well, at least he tried to redeem himself and be the hero in this chapter. Thanks for the review!

**Pompeii1224: **Well here it is! Hope you enjoyed it!

**RHatch89: **Thank you!

**HALEBTRASH: **He was definitely hella mad but it was kind of funny to me for some reason...don't ask me why. Thanks for reviewing!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **He's got flaws, insecurities. Yeah, it basically was an arranged marriage and she definitely didn't marry him for love. I mean, she grew to like him but she never loved him (not that she would tell him anyway tbh). And yes, it's completely his fault that Damon and Claire grew closer, which he will note in the next chapter and come to terms with. Well, everything worked out anyways without her getting bitten by Tyler. Damon was, though, and it'll definitely shake things up for Claire later on. Thanks for reviewing!

**darkangle1234: **Thank you! I'm trying to, I just have no motivation to write for it right now. The inspiration will come, though. I know a lot of people have been really patient with me and I appreciate it but right now if I sit down and write it, I'm probably just gonna kill everyone off because writing it bores me so much. One day, the inspiration will come, and when that day comes there will be an update. Thanks for the review!

**Tvd2014: **Yep he definitely went insane! Thank you! This chapter was extremely long so I hope you liked it!

**Just Another Netflixer: **Thank you! That really means a lot. I like Christopher's character too...sometimes. He annoys me when he gets all high and mighty, but I do like the challenge that he brings in with Damon and the challenge he'll create for Claire in the next two chapters and in later seasons. Thanks! Damon and Claire still have a long way to go and yeah, it's extremely hard for them to be together and I appreciate your feedback on it! Here's the update! I hope you enjoyed it!

**Guest: **Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to make things go into a forward motion instead of a backward one...although Damon and Claire will have a bunch of setbacks in the next few seasons but ultimately, they'll overcome it and their relationship will be better for it. Claire's character has really grown since the beginning and in the next few chapters she'll grow even more. Klaus has already shown interest in Claire and that will only be explained in depth through the next season which will be a lot of fun to let her struggle with. They will definitely have a backstory, similar to Klaus and Stefan's. Claire and Damon FTW, though, of course :) Thank you! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	35. The Sun Also Rises

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Sun Also Rises**

Damon and Katherine stared down at the growing wolf bite, both of them silent and still as they studied every curve of the veins that popped out of Damon's skin and the bumps that formed over the infected area. Katherine let out a shaky breath.

"So that's what a werewolf bite looks like."

"Yep."

"It's not that bad..."

"Will be." Damon sighed and pulled his sleeve down as he got up from the stool in Alaric's kitchen. Katherine watched him with a frown.

"So that's it?" she asked, confused. "You're just...gonna die?"

"Well, that depends. You know anything about a cure?" She shook her head, but the question was far from optimistic. He nodded at her. "Me, either."

Katherine stared at the center island in Alaric's kitchen as Damon walked over to the couch and grabbed his jacket that someone had thrown onto one of the seats. As he slipped it over his shoulders, Katherine turned to him, trying not to say something sappy and heartfelt that she knew she would regret later in her life; no, instead, she just increased the sarcasm in her tone.

"145 years and...no last goodbye?"

"You don't get a goodbye," he told her bitterly, turning to walk out. Quickly, she flashed in front of him and pressed her palm to his chest with a hard shake of her head.

"Don't! Don't leave mad."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Us ending up on good terms isn't exactly on my bucket list, Katherine."

"Klaus made me call Jenna to lure her out!" she defended herself, blocking Damon's multiple attempts to get around her and leave. "There was nothing that I could do. I didn't have a choice!"

"That's why I gave you the vervain," he countered. "So you had a choice."

"It was her or me. I chose her."

"I helped you," Damon argued, looking at the brunette in front of him with extreme disappointment. "You owed me. Now, when Klaus dies, you're gonna walk out here without a scratch and Elena's aunt dies. Somehow you're the only one that wins! How'd that happen?"

She shook her head and replied softly, "I didn't let love get in the way."

"Enjoy an eternity alone, Katherine." After a pitiful look, he walked around her and started for the door, but before he could get far, he heard Katherine behind him.

"What are you gonna do?"

He turned and sighed. "I'm gonna offer myself as a replacement to Klaus."

"He won't take you!" Katherine told him again. "He saw your bite. He said that your blood is impure. I'm sorry, Damon. But Jenna's dead, there's nothing you can do about it."

Damon held his head high, but he didn't say anything else. Without so much as a goodbye, he turned on his heel and walked out of the apartment, practically slamming the door in Katherine's face. But as much as he hated her, as much as he wanted to stick it to her and tell her to get lost, she was unfortunately right and there was nothing he could do to change that. All he could hope for was Claire—that she had listened to him and was halfway to Montana in his car, lucky enough not to see his inevitable death.

* * *

The car ride was painstakingly silent—highly uncomfortable, too. Christopher and Claire hadn't spoken a single word to each other since she had asked him to turn up the AC for her since her vision was too blurry to see the controller. He was extremely worried about her state of mind; whatever drug Klaus had given her, it was getting worse. She was sweating perfusely, breathing heavily, and blinking rapidly as if trying to get her eyes to stay focused. He tried to ask her if she was okay, but she barely responded to him most times. But the truth of the matter was, she didn't _want_ to respond to him. Though she was hot as hell and shaking, she still remember what he did and everything he said to her. She didn't want to look at him, let alone speak with him.

And ten minutes into the uncomfortable car ride, Christopher couldn't take it anymore. He sighed heavily. "Claire, please. You can't stay mad at me forever."

She shifted, clutching her stomach as she wheezed out, "Watch me."

"I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely, looking over at her to make sure she was okay. "You don't know how sorry I am for what I did. I was jealous and I wasn't thinking clearly. I heard you and Damon and I...I flipped, okay? You lied to me."

Claire swallowed and, though her mouth was as dry as a desert, managed to croak, "Christopher, I-I tried to make it work with you. You left me. I don't know what more you wanted me to do...I was already married to you. The second I found out you were alive, I stopped sleeping with Damon. I don't know what more you could've asked for."

"I asked for the truth, Claire."

"You don't think Stefan did, either? You weren't the only one we lied to. We did it because it was fun for us. We did it because we didn't want to make it a big deal, to admit that we...that we actually...cared about each other. Because we didn't. We hated each other, Christopher, and that didn't change until recently."

"I believe you," he promised. "And I told you, I'm sorry. Those things I said, none of them were true. You believe that, right?"

She was quiet for a moment before she finally sighed. "I don't believe you wanted to hurt me. But that doesn't change the fact that you did."

Before he could get the chance to respond to her accusation, there was a sharp ringing noise in Claire's pocket. Though her bones ached, she reached into her jacket pocket and, with shaking hands, produced a small pre-paid flip phone that didn't belong to her. She looked down at it in wonder.

"What is that?" Christopher asked, trying to keep his focus on the road while also trying to figure out what was in her hand. Claire didn't answer him. Instead, she blinked a few times and then used her thumb to open the phone, answering the call on the screen.

"Hello?" Christopher waited, unable to hear anything on the phone over the engine of the car. Claire listened for a few moments before taking a slow deep breath. "Yes. Okay. I'll call you back."

She ended the call, holding the flip phone in her sweaty palm. Christopher looked over, confused. "Who was—"

Suddenly, she reached over the passenger seat and grabbed the steering wheel, jerking it so far to her right that the car did a complete 360 until it lost balance and flipped over. As the car flipped over in mid-air, she reached out and snapped Christopher's neck with all the strength she had left, causing his head to fall over his chest, indicating that she had killed him—at least temporarily. The car landed on the roof in the middle of a desolate street, a backroad that Christopher was taking so they could avoid Klaus and company as they left town. Claire struggled in her seat, but eventually, she kicked open the door and managed to crawl onto the road, lifting herself up from the gravel with shaking legs. Wasting no time, she pulled out the flip phone and dialed the last incoming call.

_"Is he taken care of?" _Klaus asked her over the line. Claire swallowed thickly.

"He'll be out for a while, yeah. W-What about Jenna?"

_"Jenna will be fine, love. Greta hasn't forced her to turn yet. Get to the quarry within five minutes and I promise you that no further harm will come to her. That is, of course, if you so choose to sacrifice yourself instead." _

She closed her eyes and said softly, "I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

Klaus chuckled. _"Unfortunately, no. The toxin in your blood will continue to degrade your strength for a few more hours before your body gives out. The spell is slow, painful, and fetal to a vampire. Once you hand yourself over, Greta will give you the antidote." _

"Am I supposed to be thanking you for this?"

_"No thanks is necessary, love." _

With that said, Klaus hung up the phone, acting as if he had all the cards in his hand. He did, but she was still bitter about it. She dropped the flip phone in her hand and crushed it underneath her foot so the phone shattered into pieces. Having no other choice, she looked around her and with whatever ounce of strength she had left, she split.

* * *

"Oh, my...my head," Jenna hissed as she rocked back and forth on her knees, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "What's wrong with me?"

"Do you remember what happened?" Elena asked, kneeling beside her aunt. Jenna looked up at her and nodded.

"You called me. You were so scared. Oh...ah, I should've realized that-that it wasn't you. The second I walked out of the house, someone grabbed me. A vampire."

"Klaus." Elena nodded, assured. "It was Klaus."

"He made me drink his blood," Jenna continued, her voice shaking. "And...I-I don't remember anything after that. Where...are we? What happened?"

The young human reached forward and gripped her guardian's hands tightly. "We're at the quarry. He brought us here."

"Why don't I remember anything?"

"Jenna, do you remember..." Elena trailed off as she tasted the salty words in her mouth, hating the acrid taste as she forced them to surface, "...when I told you how someone becomes a vampire?"

"Yeah, if you die with vampire blood in your system, it's—" Jenna stopped herself and Elena waited as her aunt suddenly put two and two together, her eyes widening. "Oh, God. He killed me."

Elena leaned forward, desperately trying to control her tears and remain strong. "Jenna, listen to me. Listen to me! Everything's going to be okay, I'm going to get you out of here."

"I-I'm a vampire?"

"And I bet you're hungry!"

Before Elena could get a chance to continue her conversation with Aunt Jenna, Greta spoke from behind them with a soft smile resting upon her face as she stared at the family reunion in the dim light of the quarry. The witch sauntered forward, inching her way over to Jenna as Elena realized what she would do. Thinking fast, Elena spotted a rock a few feet ahead of her and decided to go for it. There was no way she was going to let Klaus turn Jenna into a vampire for the ritual. She had done what he asked and she didn't deserve to be punished for anything. So she got up from the floor and ran over to the rock, hoping to grip it in her hands and throw before Greta had a chance to retaliate, but she was too slow. Elena reached for the rock and then felt as if she were flying, causing her to let out a sharp scream. She landed on her back, rolling over onto her side with only a split second to recoil. Again, she tried to run, but a ring of flames surrounded her, sealing her into a fire circle. She attempted to move over the flames, but there was an invisible barrier preventing her from crossing the ring of flames.

"Don't bother trying to get through," Greta warned her. "I spelled the circle. You're trapped, no matter what you do."

"Greta...please," Elena begged as Greta picked up the rock Elena had gone for, holding it in her hand tauntingly. Elena's mouth suddenly went dry. "Just let her go!"

Greta smiled. "There's only one way I'm letting her go, and that's if—"

"I'm here!" Greta spun around and watched as Clarissa King fell over at her feet, her entire body dripping with sweat and her skin ten times paler than normal. With a grin, Greta dropped the rock in her hand and walked over to Claire, leaving Jenna and Elena to watch as Claire forced herself up on her knees and panted, "I'm here, I'm here. Let Jenna go."

"Claire, what are you doing?" Jenna asked, slowly rising from the ground. Claire looked behind Greta and shook her head at Jenna.

"Being a vampire...it's hell, Jenna. I'm giving you an option. I'm saving you from an eternity of regret." She looked back at Greta with a scoff. "Although, it's not like I have much of a choice, anyways."

Greta shrugged. "Did you really think he would leave you alone without assurance?"

Claire scoffed, but though her exterior was less than intimidating, her tone hadn't ceased to frighten. "Wishful thinking, I guess. Let Jenna go. Now. Or I'll kill you."

"And die."

"Yes, that seems to be a repeating theme around here."

Greta stared at Claire, her eyes narrowing as she thought to herself how brave and stupid the vampire was before her. But though it was stupid, it was still brave, and for that Greta could commend some credit. Regardless, without turning to Jenna, she spoke aloud, "You're free to leave us now, Jenna. Be aware that you're still in transition and have roughly twenty-four hours to decide whether or not you want to become a vampire."

Jenna stared at Greta's back, swallowing and looking at her with bewildered eyes. Jenna turned herself to look at Elena, who was standing on the other side of the fire just as scared as Jenna was, but sucking up that fear, Elena turned to Jenna and nodded.

"Go," Elena told her aunt firmly, and though Jenna was hesitant to leave, she did, taking off in the opposite direction at a full-on sprint. When Jenna was gone, Greta stepped back and raised her hand, causing a ring of fire to appear around the vampire on the ground. Claire was too sick to notice or fight back, but Elena watched in disgust and intrigue as the witch pulled something out of her pocket. A vial of some sort. Before Elena could even think of what to ask the evil witch in front of her, Greta suddenly threw the vial down on the ground and the flames jumped ten feet higher. Merely two seconds later, Claire doubled over on her side and started to vomit up her own blood. Suddenly, Elena turned to Greta, her eyes wide. "What did you do to her?"

"I saved her," Greta told the doppelgänger pointedly as they both watched Claire chuck up an unfortunate amount of blood. Elena winced at the sounds that her friend was making, hearing the unpleasant heaves. "We poisoned her blood. I gave her the antidote."

"And the antidote is supposed to make her throw up her entire blood supply?"

"It's supposed to expel the poisoned blood, yes." Greta turned to Elena with a shrug. "And she'll be as good as new for the ritual."

Claire pushed herself up on her hands and let out one long heave before wiping her mouth and pushing herself up onto her feet, where she turned to Greta with a look of utter disgust. "I couldn't have taken a pill?"

Greta frowned. "You're all better now, aren't you?" Claire didn't respond, but it was obvious: the vampire's color was back in her pale skin, her body temperature was beginning to go down, and she had stopped shaking. Greta turned and walked away, leaving Elena and Claire to themselves while she did the rest of Klaus's bidding.

* * *

When Damon arrived home, he was fully expecting an empty house. By the time he had managed to get from Alaric's apartment back to the Salvatore boarding house, he was sure that Stefan, Elijah, Amelia, and Christopher would be at the witch house trying to put the final details on their plan. However, when he stepped into the house, he realized there was something utterly wrong. In the parlor, there was a figure with her back to the front of the house as she faced the fireplace. From the angle, it looked as if the hair was blonde, but as Damon took a closer look he knew that it wasn't as pale as Claire's or as golden as Amelia's, it was more of a golden brown. He closed the door with an audible slam, but whoever was inside didn't turn around.

As he neared closer, he realized who it was, but it didn't make sense. Damon stopped at the threshold of the parlor and, with narrowed eyes, hissed, "Jenna? What are you doing here?"

Jenna turned around, her eyes wet and wild, her hands shaking uncontrollably. Damon was entirely confused and he waited for Jenna to answer his question. He stood on one end of the coffee table while she stood at the other, trying to form the words.

"K-Klaus took me," Jenna stammered, her eyes everywhere but Damon's. "He...he killed me. He fed me his blood and then he killed me and dragged me to this...this place..."

"What place?"

"The quarry," she answered. Damon walked around the coffee table and stood next to her as she let a tear roll down her face. "She said I was a vampire o-or...or, I _will be _one. Elena told me something about that...I have to feed, right? I have to feed on blood to become a vampire."

"Yeah, you have to feed on human blood to become a vampire. Jenna, look at me." Damon reached out and turned Aunt Jenna's shoulders towards him, watching as she sniffed and tried to hold herself together while he looked at her with widened eyes. "How are you here right now?"

"The witch let me go."

"Why?" _Don't say it, _Damon pleaded in his thoughts, trying desperately to maintain some hope. There would only be one reason why Klaus would let his vampire go and he hoped by some magical force that Klaus had found himself a different King; a long, distant relative to Clarissa. But, of course, nothing had been going his way so far.

"Claire showed up," Jenna whispered to him. Damon closed his eyes with a sigh and dropped his hands from Jenna's shoulders. "I think she was...sick or something. She said she was coming to save me from being a vampire but she said she didn't have a choice. Greta said something about having assurance. I left before I got to see what happened after that."

"Damn it," Damon cursed under his breath before he turned around and pulled out his phone, leaving Jenna to herself as he listened to the dial tone. He could hear her ask him who he was calling, but he didn't answer. Instead, he waited for the phone to pick up and listened to his brother on the line.

_"Damon," _Stefan answered immediately, waiting for good news. Unfortunately, Damon had none for him.

"You're not gonna like what I'm about to say," Damon muttered.

_"Is the sacrifice happening or not?" _

"It's happening," Damon assured him. "I tried to stop it, but it got...complicated."

_"We're sticking with the original plan. We're meeting Bonnie right now. Claire's safe?" _

"No." The words were so sour coming out of Damon's mouth. He wanted to kick and punch and scream, but he could barely keep himself up. The werewolf bite was slowly degrading his strength minute by minute. "No, that's why I'm calling. He's got Claire, Stefan. He took Jenna earlier. She's in transition and Claire went and saved her."

Damon could hear Stefan's hesitation. _"What?"_

"He got everything he wanted, Stefan. He did something to Claire that didn't give her a choice and he used Jenna to make an example out of us. But I can handle her, just...tell me that you found something that'll save Claire." Stefan was silent, causing Damon to lean onto the counter of the bar and clench his fist as tightly as he could. "Damn it, Stefan, talk to me!"

_"Damon_—_" _

But he knew the tones in his brother's voice could only mean one thing. Angrily, Damon snapped his phone closed and set it down on the bar behind the couch, completely forgetting that Jenna was standing a few feet away from him as he let himself seethe for a few moments and then suddenly swept everything off of the bar in a fluid motion, the anger blinding him. Jenna flinched, frightened at the sudden outburst, but Damon just stared at the glass on the floor with a big, empty pounding his head as he realized that everything he spent the day risking had all been for nothing.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Elena asked Claire as the two stood around in their circles. Claire looked up at her and nodded.

"Fine. Throwing up all the poisonous blood out of my system really did the trick." She crossed her arms and looked softly at the human. "And you?"

Elena gulped. "Do you really have to ask me that?"

Claire stayed silent, watching as Elena gave her a pitiful look. The two stared for a while before Claire let her eyes drift down at the fire and with a sigh, she lowered herself down onto her bottom, pulling her knees up to her chest. Elena did the same, at the very edge of the circle but with her knees tucked underneath her body and her hands on her thighs. Claire ran a hand through her hair and leaned against her hand, looking as if she were lost. Elena didn't blame her; she was lost, too.

"I'm gonna die, Elena," the blonde said quietly, whispering the words with tears in her eyes. Elena took in a heavy breath, feeling so guilty about everything. If it wasn't for her, this wouldn't have happened. Klaus wouldn't be in Mystic Falls and no one would've gotten hurt. Claire looked up at her with a rare, completely serious facial expression. "I never really thought about it like this. I was so worried about what would happen to...to you or to Jenna or Caroline and Bonnie...I-I never really thought about what would happen if I was the one that ended up here. You can get out of this mess, but me? There's no way to save me."

"Claire..." Elena trailed off slowly, trying not to let the tears overcome her. She'd never seen Claire this somber and if Claire was acting this way, it essentially meant the end of the world. In a way, it sort of was.

"It's very vain of me," she added bitterly. "I'm a very selfish, girl, Elena. I told you that. I can claim that I hate Katherine all I want, but I want to be alive. I want to _stay _alive. I may not like what I am—I can bitch and moan about how I hate what she did to me, but I'm _alive. _And I don't want to die."

"I'm not gonna let that happen." Elena looked at Claire sternly and shook her head. Claire looked away, not wanting to hear any of Elena's excuses. "I don't care what I have to do—"

All of a sudden, Claire and Elena stopped hearing a sharp shout in the distance. They conversation halted, they looked to see Greta forcing someone out of the shadows, someone who was bent over groaning. Claire rose to her feet and Elena squinted in the darkness.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"The werewolf," Claire answered quietly as she backed up and observed Greta forcing Jules, the female werewolf friend of Mason's who tried to kill her and the rest of the vampires in Mystic Falls, onto the ground. Jules fell down, too weak to get back up and fight. She clutched her stomach as her breathing quickened.

"What's happening to me?" Jules demanded.

"I cast a spell to slow down your transformation," Greta told her, almost condescendingly. It sounded as if the witch was having a little too much fun; it was sick. "Your insides are trying to tear themselves free."

She stepped far enough away from Jules and swept her hand across her body, igniting a ring of fire around the werewolf as there was one around the doppelgänger and the vampire. Elena stared across the fire at the dark witch.

"Greta, witches are supposed to maintain the balance in nature!" she scolded. "It's your duty to them to keep this curse sealed."

"My duty is to Klaus!" she retorted angrily. "The _new _order."

"Glad to know I still have a dance partner." Elena, Claire, and Greta all turned to see Klaus emerge from the shadows. Jules looked over as well, although weak, and noted the British vampire looming over them looking at his salvation. Claire's blood boiled inside, Elena's eyes filled with tears, and Jules quivered in fear as he looked around with a smile. "Hello, my lovlies. Are we ready?"

* * *

Christopher stomped into the house, his entire appearance evidence of his earlier death from a car accident caused by his ex-wife. He was certainly not happy about the fact that she had just killed him, let alone the fact that he had lost her to Klaus, as he was most likely the person to call her on the phone. Either he had compelled her or gave her an offer she couldn't refuse, he didn't know, but all that mattered was that he stormed into the Salvatore house, walked up to the bar in the parlor, and poured himself a glass of bourbon. With an exhausted, angry sigh, he pulled the glass to his lips and prepared to drink, but before he could, the glass slipped out of his hand and crashed all over the bartop as someone pinned Christopher up against the nearest wall. When the confusion had settled, Christopher realized it was a very furious Damon that he was staring at, holding him up by the collar of his jacket.

"How could you?!" Damon snarled. "I gave you one job! One job! Come back home, find a way to save her! And what do you do? You go off gallivanting like a _moron _and manage to screw up everything!"

"Get off of me!" Christopher shoved the dark-haired Salvatore off, finding it surprisingly easy to slap Damon's hands away and keep him at arms length. Damon wobbled for a moment, something that Christopher didn't notice because he was too focused on trying to excuse himself. "You actually think I was going to listen to you? I'm not your brother, Damon, you can't boss me around. I followed you to the cemetery so I could make sure she was okay. And it's a good thing I did, too, because you _left _her and she was in absolutely no condition to drive! So I did."

There was a brief silence, causing Damon to widen his eyes at Christopher, prompting him, "Okay, then, why the hell are you back here and why did Claire turn herself over to Klaus?"

Christopher let out a frustrated sigh. "She...she killed me, okay? Crashed your car and killed me! I don't know why, but she did. I was out for at least an hour."

"You crashed my—!" Damon stopped, the anger bubbling up inside of him becoming too much for his weak body to handle. This time, Christopher saw the pause in Damon's sentence and cocked an eyebrow.

"Damon, uh—"

"Shut up," he growled, waving his hand at Christopher once he had regained control of his stance. Christopher did so involuntarily, crossing his arms and waiting for Damon to continue. Damon walked over to the bartop behind the couch in the parlor and leaned his fists on it, rocking back and forth for a moment with his eyes closed as he hissed, "Jenna said she had no choice. She was weak when I left her, he probably...had his creepy witch do a spell. Okay, listen, here's what we're gonna—"

Before Damon could finish his thought, there was an insistent knocking on the front door of the boarding house. At first, it was normal, and then it came again, and then it came again, and it wouldn't stop. The two vampires in the foyer were looking at it with confusion, but after a while, Damon sighed and managed to walk forward with the strength he had left in him and swing open the door, only to come face-to-face with none other than John Gilbert. Damon frowned.

"Great. You know, now that I think of it, I could use a bite to eat."

John ignored him and sauntered into the house. "Elena hasn't returned any of my calls for days. I need to see her."

Damon sighed and turned at him, closing the boarding house door. "Well, you're a day late and a daughter short, John."

"What are you talking about?"

"Klaus has her, doesn't she?" Christopher stepped forward out of the parlor into the foyer and stared at Damon, who had his mouth open and ready to respond. Instead, he shut it softly and nodded. Christopher paused briefly before looking at John and explaining, "The sacrifice happens tonight, John."

John looked at Damon with wild eyes. "How could you let that happen? You were supposed to keep her safe! Wasn't that the sum total of your plan; to keep her safe?"

"_Claire _was supposed to keep her safe. It was her plan," Damon returned sharply. John threw up his hands.

"Fine! Then where's Claire?" The two vampires around John were silent, leading John to scoff and shake his head. "He took her too, I'm assuming."

"Relax, John." Damon snapped, wanting not to deal with John Gilbert and his selfish concerns. "Your daughter will be fine. Elijah gave her an elixir that's supposed to revive her after Klaus breaks the curse. She'll live. Believe me, that's not what you should be upset about."

John scoffed. "It gets worse?"

"Yeah, John." John turned around as Christopher and Damon looked over his shoulder to see Jenna stumble down the hallway from downstairs, wrapped in a blanket, shaking, with her skin as pale as a ghost. It was clear that the transition wasn't treating her well, and if she didn't feed soon, she would die. John's face turned down as he realized what was happening and Jenna, who was never really fond of John, deadpanned, "It gets worse."

* * *

"I've got the moonstone."

The only sound within the distance was Jules's screaming. Elena cringed, Claire stared, and Klaus ignored it. He looked down at the clear stone in his hands with nostalgia, forgetting for just a moment that the witch before him had her hand raised ready to take it from him.

"I spent 500 years looking for this. I hate to part with it." He looked up at Greta and extended it to her, where she took it gently and lifted her eyes to the sky.

"The moon has passed its apex." She glanced at him with a smile. "Remember everything you need to do?"

"I remember," he whispered assuringly before she threw the moonstone down, where it landed with a spark, and began to chant. Jules screamed louder, the agony washing all over her. Elena looked over at the werewolf with weary eyes and watched as Jules looked up at both Elena and Claire with guilt in her eyes.

"Everything I did," she choked out, "I was just trying to help Tyler..."

"Are you Jules?" Elena asked, surprised. She looked at Claire for confirmation, and Claire nodded at her. Jules continued from her fetal position on the ground.

"I didn't want him to be alone," she admitted, following a groan. By this time, Klaus had walked over to her circle and looked at her with hungry eyes.

"Shall we?" he suggested. Jules let out a painful scream as the fire around her withdrew, giving her only a few seconds to escape. She realized this and once the fire was completely dissolved around her, she let the wolf inside of her take over, feeling her eyes change into that of her wolf form. Klaus watched in anticipation as she barred her teeth and moved quickly to escape his clutches with an animalistic growl, but she was no match for him. He pinned her body to the ground and lodged his hand into her heart, pulling out the live organ right from her chest. Claire and Elena watched in absolute horror as Jules's body arched with a gasp and he held the heart in his hand as if it were a trophy of his victory. With disgusting grace, Klaus lifted himself from Jules and walked over to Greta, who was focusing on the spell without instructing Klaus to anything. He took the heart in his hand and squeezed, the blood of the organ dripping all over his knuckles and into the water that was lit by the witch's fire. The water was completely red, soaked in werewolf blood.

"Does that mean it's working?" Klaus asked his witch hopefully.

"It's working," Greta promised.

"Do you have any secrets?" Claire asked Elena quietly as the two of them stood around as closely as they could with the fire separating them. Elena looked over at her, distracted from Klaus and Greta's proceedings, and cocked an eyebrow. The blonde turned and faced the brunette with a nod. "You know, like a secret you've never told anyone? A secret that you probably should've mentioned deca—well, in your case, it'd probably be years ago, but you still never said anything?"

Elena paused for a moment, then nodded. "Well, um...when I was twelve, I shoplifted a pair of Gucci sunglasses from a department store."

Claire knotted her eyebrows and tried to resist a smile. "That's your big, dark secret? You're telling me that you're about to be sacrificed in an archaic witch ritual for a lunatic vampire/werewolf and all you want to tell me is that you shoplifted a pair of sunglasses from Macy's?"

The doppelgänger frowned. "Look, I never told my parents. They always expected so much of me...I did it on a dare, it was stupid, but I still did it. And I was ashamed of it, so I never told them. Then...then they died. I'll never have the chance to tell them." Claire was silent for a moment, but she seemed to accept the answer and slowly turned around to observe Klaus and Greta. Elena cleared her throat. "Wait, don't you have a secret, too?"

The blonde looked over her shoulder. "Me? I have eons of secrets, Elena. I never said I would share them, though."

A small smile drifted onto Elena's lips, but she couldn't help the third round of tears in her eyes. If somehow she survived what was about to happen to them and Claire didn't, she'd never forgive herself.

"Claire," Elena whispered, causing the vampire to slowly turn around, tearing her eyes away from Klaus and Greta, who were undoubtedly coming after her next. With a hard swallow, Claire looked at Elena across the fire as the doppelgänger nodded. "There's a reason he fought so hard to keep you here. Your blood is special, we both know that." Claire nodded in agreement and watched as Elena lowered her voice to a soft tone and demanded low enough so Klaus nor Greta could hear, "So _use it_."

* * *

"How are you feeling?" John asked Jenna as he walked into the study, noticing her sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, ticking her fingers as if she was itching to get a bite of human flesh. He had no doubt that she was, but he was prepared to fight her if she tried.

Jenna looked up at him with red eyes and snapped, "Elena's gonna die in a sacrifice ritual and someone killed me earlier. So now I have to decide if I want to be alive for the rest of eternity or die. Actually, I'm feeling a little under the weather. How about you?"

John let out a sigh and sat down on the coffee table across from Jenna. "I know this is hard..."

"Oh, shut up," she stopped him. It was partially the anxiousness of the transition talking, but also the fact that she just really didn't like him. "I've got a million problems right now and you are not going to be one of them." John was quiet as he put his hands together and leaned on his knees, watching as Jenna stared off into the fireplace silently and her eyes started to water. He waited for her to continue to speak, trying to contain herself. "The day that the lawyers called to tell me that I was going to become Elena and Jeremy's guardian, you know what my first thought was? Isn't there someone else who can do this? It's just the thought that I almost passed up taking care of them..."

"But you didn't, Jenna. You helped them," John reasoned. She looked over at him and wiped the tears away from her eyes.

"Look at me, John! Look at me!" she yelled angrily. He didn't flinch as she leaned forward and snapped, "How can you sit there and tell me that I helped them? I _failed _them! I didn't know what was going on in Mystic Falls until a few days ago! You did! You knew! I was supposed to know! I was supposed to be the one to help them! I..."

"Hey...hey, Jenna, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay," John repeated as he moved from the coffee table onto the couch, trying to comfort the crying transitional vampire. She slapped him away as she cried, the emotions overwhelming her, but eventually, she stopped trying to fight it and let him hold her for a few seconds.

But when she finally let him be there with her, he did what he had to do. John produced the knife he was hiding in the waistband of his jeans and slowly entered it into Jenna's back. He took a deep breath and listened as her breathing stopped and came to a slow and her body fell limp in his arms. Her eyes were huge as she dropped to the floor, face-first, the knife standing tall in her back. John looked down at the body with disgust, oddly feeling ashamed of himself. It was one thing to kill a vampire; it was another thing to kill his sister-in-law who was in transition. But he couldn't let her turn, could he? All vampires were monsters no matter who they were as humans. However, it didn't make him any less disgusted with what he'd done.

So respectfully, he dropped down to the ground and removed the dagger from Jenna's back and rolled her over onto her stomach to witness her look of horror. Swallowing back the bile in his throat, John took his hand and brushed it across her face, closing her eyes so that she rested peacefully. With that done, he lifted himself from the floor and sat back on the couch, hanging his head over his body in shame.

Meanwhile, Damon was sitting on the couch in the parlor, staring at the fireplace himself with the decanter of bourbon in one hand and a glass in another. He could feel the werewolf bite growing by the minute, causing him to become increasingly weak as the clock ticked on. Within the hour, Claire would be dead. Within a day, he would be, too. None of it mattered.

"Damon!"

All of a sudden, there was a gust of wind, and Damon looked up to see Christopher settling from the vamp-speed he had exerted to get all the way from upstairs down to the parlor. Christopher walked up to Damon across the coffee table, pacing back and forth in front of him. Damon took a sip of his bourbon and shook his head as he leaned forward to put the decanter on the table.

"Quit pacing, it's making me dizzy."

"I know how to save her," Christopher blurted out, causing damon to stop cold and look up sharply.

"How?"

He unfolded something in his hand and pressed it flat on the table. Damon leaned forward and took it carefully, knotting his eyebrows as Christopher pointed at it over and over again. "When I was in Germany, I met this witch. Of course, she wasn't too fond of the fact that I was a vampire, but...I don't know, maybe German witches aren't too difficult because we—"

"Spit it out!" Damon demanded, setting down the piece of paper that he couldn't read because it was all in German. Christopher slowed and sat down on the couch across from Damon, looking at him carefully.

"I was curious, so I looked through her spell books. And I found this one...in English, it says 'to revive a creature of the night'." Damon and Christopher were both quiet before the bronze-haired vampire pushed, "I've read the spell, Damon, and it's something that applies almost to this exact situation. We can bring her back."

And the two vampires stared at each other, hoping they had found salvation for the girl they both loved. They wasted no time in getting to the witch house, where Christopher went immediately to speak with Bonnie about the spell he had discovered. Damon, however, stayed up on the first floor to speak to Alaric, who had requested his attention. Once Alaric had said what he needed to, Damon stared at him from across the room in the witch house that the vampire was now allowed to be in, practically fuming upon the news that his idiotic brother had followed Claire's idiotic sister to Steven's Quarry so they could offer themselves as the sacrifice for the ritual instead of Claire. Alaric stayed silent as Damon blew up.

"They did _what_?!" he demanded. Alaric shrugged.

"Amelia wasn't going to let her sister die and Stefan wasn't going to let Amelia sacrifice herself so he followed her."

The dark-haired vampire stared incredulously. "We have a witch! She kills Klaus! No one has to die!"

"Except for Bonnie."

"God, Stefan, damn it!" In a moment of rage, Damon clenched his fist and punched the nearest thing to him, which was luckily a wall. After the surge of strength, he faltered, feeling the effects of the wolf bite through his veins. Alaric noticed Damon's strangeness immediately, stepping forward cautiously and holding up his hand.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Damon growled, taking a moment before looking up at Alaric. In a dark tone, he sighed, "Well, that's younger siblings for you. Always cleaning up our messes."

With a stomp, Damon brushed past Alaric and tried to figure out a way to get them out of the mess that kept growing.

* * *

Klaus sauntered towards them, and Claire knew it was time. He kept his eyes locked with hers in an uncomfortable way. She didn't know whether she wanted to kick his teeth in or cower into a shell, and that was not a good thing. Clarissa King did not cower and for someone to make her want to...well, that was a whole different story.

"Hello, Clarissa," Klaus began, her name rolling off of his tongue like no other. She stiffened, but didn't break his gaze.

"Let her go!" The plead came from Elena, who walked around to have a clear view of Klaus. The vampire unfortunately broke his staring contest with the blonde in front of him to look at Elena, and Claire relaxed for a moment, trying to contain her fear. Klaus waited for her to continue. "I understand that I have to die, but she doesn't—"

Elena moved towards the edge of the circle—too close. The ring around her went aflame, causing her to step back by natural human reflexes. Klaus looked at her with wide, worried eyes.

"Careful!" he scolded. Claire looked back at Elena and shook her head.

"Elena, it's okay."

"No, Claire! This isn't right!" The brunette heatedly turned her eyes to Klaus. "She didn't do anything wrong! You can use another vampire, Klaus, please! I followed all your rules, I did everything that you asked, I didn't run...and you still turned my aunt into a vampire. The least you can do is let Claire go. She doesn't deserve this."

Klaus looked at Elena cautiously, but she couldn't tell whether he was really considering her proposal or not. But when he spoke, the words weren't directed towards her or Claire—they were for the two vampires that were fighting each other as they both stumbled upon higher ground overlooking the ritual site.

"Well, well." Klaus turned around sourly and looked up. "I don't recall you two being on the guest list."

Elena and Claire followed Klaus's eyes to the top of the hill, watching as Stefan angrily released Amelia's hand and start to pace. The blonde vampire stood above on the hill, her face stern and her look cold. Claire's eyes widened as she saw Stefan grasp his hair frustratedly while Amelia spoke to the vampire below.

"I'm here to talk, Klaus."

"Very well, then." With one final look at Claire, noticing her expression as Claire's sister stood on the top of the hill clearly about to do something that Claire would never approve of, Klaus took off and met with the two other vampires on the hill with a smile. "What can I do for you, Miss King? Mr. Salvatore?"

"Amelia, don't do this," Stefan begged her, coming up behind the blonde's shoulder to whisper the plead in her ear. She swallowed back the lump in her throat, but ignored Stefan as she stiffened and locked eyes with Klaus, watching as his wicked grin grew on his face.

* * *

"Do you realize what this means?" Bonnie asked Christopher, looking up at him from the piece of paper with the spell written on it. She had done a simple spell to translate the words on the page into English so he wouldn't have to translate it all for her. Christopher was leaning up against the wall of the basement of the witch house, staring at both Jeremy and Bonnie as they looked at him with either judgement or pity, he couldn't tell. Christopher nodded.

"Yes. I know what it means."

"And you're willing to do this for her?" Jeremy scoffed, confused. Christopher looked over at him sharply as Jeremy shrugged. "What? Aren't you her ex-husband now or something? You left, didn't you?"

"I left because I found out what happened with her and Damon," he corrected, straightening so that he was staring at the witch and the human both with stern, decided eyes. "He's always been the problem with us. Not her. Not me. It doesn't matter if she loves him now because I still love her. I'll always love her, so _yes. _I am willing to do this. For her."

"But Christopher," Bonnie said slowly, shaking her head, "witches require a balance in nature. She died once, she came back as a vampire. The human part of her is gone so...if she dies as a vampire, that vampire part of hers is gone, too. This spell is used to save her _vampire _life, which means—"

"It requires the life of a vampire. I get it." He looked between Bonnie and Jeremy with a single nod. "Like I said, I'm willing to do this." His gaze focused on Bonnie. "The question is, can you?"

Bonnie snuck a glance at Jeremy, who looked weary about the entire situation in general. But when she looked back at Christopher, she knew he was desperate. She was desperate, too. They were all desperate. If she didn't perform the spell before Claire died, Christopher wouldn't die and she wouldn't come back to life.

So she nodded, slowly but surely, and he nodded right back at her in agreement, ready to begin the spell.

* * *

"You don't need to kill my sister," Amelia told the powerful vampire in front of her, trying not to tremble with fear. She sucked in a deep breath. "I-I'm a King, too. My blood is just as good as hers. You can let her go; I'll take her place."

Klaus cocked his head. "You really think I'm that incompetent, Amelia? Did I expect you to come and attempt to save your sister? Yes. But lying is such a nasty habit. You're a Gilbert by blood, Miss King, no matter how you identify yourself."

"Then take me regardless," Amelia snapped at him, her eyes narrowing. He just gave her a smile. "You cannot kill my sister."

"No." Stefan stepped in front of Amelia, earning Klaus's attention. "Don't you dare try to take her. Take me instead. Take me."

Klaus shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I rather appreciate the symmetry of three women—three goddesses, sacrificed at nature's altar."

"Don't play games with me. You'll get what you want. King blood or Salvatore blood, you'll break the curse. Just let Claire go."

"Quite the hero, aren't you? I've heard that about you."

"Just make the trade. Me for Claire."

Amelia turned to the light-haired Salvatore. "Stefan, no..."

Down below, Elena panicked and looked at Claire for answers, watching as the blonde listened to the conversation with minimal reaction, driving Elena insane not being able to hear the conversation. She tried to step closer to Claire's circles, but the flames stopped her from moving any closer.

"Claire. Claire!" Elena snapped. Finally, Claire looked over at the brunette with wide eyes almost watering. Elena knew by the look on her face that it wasn't good, whatever as going on. "What's happening? What are they saying?"

"Amelia wants to trade herself in my place," Claire whispered, sickened, and shook her head at Elena as she turned to her. "And Stefan won't let her, so he's offering himself instead."

Elena took a moment to process the information, suddenly realizing why Claire was so alarmed. The brunette's heart began to pound hard in her chest and she looked up at the top of the hill, preying that Stefan grew common sense and walked away. After a moment, she started to pace, running her hands through her hair as every worse scenario raced through her mind.

"Elena..." Claire trailed off, trying to get her to stop moving. The doppelgänger shook her head desperately.

"I have to do something," the human whispered. "This can't happen. None of it."

"Quite the predicament." Elena's head whipped around to see Klaus walking up to the two flamed circles with Stefan and Amelia by his side. Claire stiffened as Klaus smiled at her. "You know, it's funny. All this talk about Clarissa not deserving death and here's two vampires willing to sacrifice themselves for you, granting Elena's wish."

"You idiots," the blonde whispered, a tear falling down her face at her sister and her best friend standing in front of her, both willing to die in her place. Behind them, Klaus stepped around and prompted Claire.

"Well? Who's it going to be, Clarissa?" He waved a stake in his hand back and forth between the two people that mattered most to her, and with heated eyes, she stared up at Klaus angrily.

"You're sick! You think I'm going to choose who gets to die?!"

"Would you rather Elena choose?" He shrugged, watching Claire as her lips turned down and she became immediately furious. Klaus grinned. "Relax, love. There's actually no choice." Suddenly, he flashed around behind Stefan and stabbed him right in the back using the wooden stake in his hand, causing Stefan to scream out in pain and Amelia to shout just before Klaus snapped her neck. Claire tried to move forward but was forced back by the flames that jumped, creating a whooshing sounds that did nothing to overpower Elena's shouts of protest towards Stefan's injury. Klaus looked up at the two females left in the circles. "Amelia is of no use to me and well...I have other plans for Stefan. I want him alive. But for now..."

He reached down and suddenly spun Stefan's head, snapping his neck as well so that he did a complete three-sixty in the air and landed on the ground with a hard crack of bones. Elena gasped and flinched and Claire's head spun as she realized what was coming next. Sure enough, Klaus looked over his shoulder and called out, "Whenever you're ready, Greta!"

She chanted a phrase of the spell and the ring of fire around Claire extinguished. She looked around her with a hard swallow as Klaus turned back to her wickedly.

"It's your turn."

"No. No, Claire, no!" Elena tried to fight, coming closer to fire again only to be cast back. Claire turned her icy blue eyes towards Elena and nodded.

"It's all right, Elena. I can do this." Elena watched as Claire's fists clenched, turning her knuckles as white as paper, and she turned back to Klaus with a vicious look. He noticed it, but merely took it as a challenge. But instead of going for him, she decided on a better way. He'd had thousands of years to think about this moment. He had time to train to fight a King that knew what she was doing. To fight a King that didn't know how to control her magical blood powers? Well, that was a different story. She couldn't fight him; she didn't stand a chance.

But she did stand a chance against the witch on the altar. In the blink of an eye, she had her teeth ripped into the witch, prepared to drain the human's blood in merely seconds. But Klaus was too fast for her. He ripped her body off of Greta fast enough to salvage what was left of the witch's life and moved to strike against Claire. But she fought back, trying with all of her strength to use her blood against him. He swung a stake at her, but she whipped around and caught his hand, preventing the stake from piercing her body. Her grip was stronger, and therefore she ripped the stake out of his hand and tackled him to the ground, raising the stake above her body to strike down and into his chest. Before she was able to get that far, however, he flipped them in an instant and grabbed possession of the stake, his hand pinning her down so hard she wasn't able to move.

"Trust me when I say this," he muttered under his breath, staring right into her eyes. She listened carefully, utterly confused. But there was not a trace of doubt in his eyes; nothing but complete seriousness filled them. "You _will _be okay."

Elena watched as Klaus loomed over Claire and she shouted when, after a brief second, Klaus drew down the stake and it pierced the center of Claire's chest. She arched as the stake pierced her heart, gasping for air. Klaus watched her as a grey color faded on her skin, her veins slithering as a snake's and claiming her pale, perfect skin. Tears spilled over in Elena's eyes as she watched Claire die less than a few yards away from her, the evil vampire watching sadistically while the lovely Clarissa King took her last breath.

Klaus stepped away from the body, the blood-soaked stake in his hand, and he dropped it into the fire.

* * *

Claire's thick blood flowed as a thick stream into the bowl of fire. With the qualities the blood possessed, in addition to the blood-soaked stake staight from the root of the source, Klaus would be powerful than any other vampire in the world; as if he weren't already. Elena was sitting with her knees to her chest, tears soaking her face as she watched Klaus stare at Claire's blood entering the ceremonial bowl. Stefan and Amelia had by now both come to terms, both of them weaker than when Klaus had snapped their necks and not strong enough to do something about it. They both slowly looked over at the altar, noticing Claire's lifeless, desiccated body lying on the sacrifice altar, dead. Amelia's eyes filled with tears as she rested her head down on her arm, sobbing for her sister's death. Stefan slowly looked back from the altar, sickened by the image of his best friend's violent demise. He looked up at Elena and her post-sob expression, which had now only turned to anger. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't even think of the words, himself. His best friend was dead and there was no changing it.

"Are they going to kill him?" Elena whispered to Stefan, catching his eyes so that her voice could be as low as possible, unable for Klaus to hear. Stefan looked up at her and nodded slowly.

"Yes." She nodded in agreement and he reached his hand behind him, desperate to pull the stake out of his back in time for Klaus to approach Elena so he could do something about it. However, the shard of wood was too high up for him to reach, and by the time he realized this, Klaus had already approached Elena at the circle that self-extinguished its flames.

"It's time," Klaus told her seriously. Elena, a sour expression on her face, lifted her body from the ground, ignored Klaus's aid, and walked up to the sacrifice alter across from Greta. Another tear escaped her eyes as she looked at Claire's body on the ground, and she kept her gaze as far away from Klaus as possible. She could feel him come up to her side, his eyes roaming the surface of her recognizable face. His hands reached up and his cold fingertips touched her jaw, where he forced her head over to look at him, noting the tears on her cheeks. Staring into her chocolate-colored eyes, he whispered, "Thank you, Elena."

"Go to hell," she hissed, only causing him to give her a slight smile. Keeping her in his grasp, Klaus walked around Elena's body and tilted her head back, tearing his fangs into her neck. Elena kept her eyes open as long as she could, feeling the blood being drained from her body by the second. It was painful—excruciating—and her body was starting to become numb and limp from all the blood loss. Klaus held her form up by wrapping his hands around her body until every single drop was drained and her eyes rolled back into her head. He released her from his grasp, letting her fall to the altar, and looked up with doppelgänger blood dripping down his chin. His chest rose up and down, taking in the breaths of a new era. The fire beside him vanished with the end of the ritual, causing everyone to be in complete darkness. Stefan stared at the dead Elena on the altar, preying to every God there was that the elixir would work.

Klaus raised a deep breath and stumbled his way in the darkness, power consuming him.

"I can feel it!" he declared lowly as he walked, one step after another. His eyes lifted to the moon overhead. "It's happening!"

And then he shouted as his bones cracked, transforming into another beast. The power of the moon ripped his flesh apart, creating a monster that defied nature. The sick bastard took pride in it, shouting out exclamations of his happiness as the wolf transformation took place. Two different species raged inside of him, and he welcomed all of it.

But just like that, it came crumbling down. That pleasure that rushed through him turned into pain, and he was thrown out into the air, interrupting the transformation. Lightning flashed and he screamed aloud, the pain too much to handle. Greta, who was standing at the altar about ready to fight back, was taken by surprise when Damon reached forward and snapped her neck, causing her to fall to the ground in an instant, dead. He looked around in the sudden bursts of light, searching desperately for Claire.

Through the midst of all the chaos, Stefan had managed to crawl his way to Amelia and get her to look at him, to stop weeping over her dead sister, long enough for her to agree to pull the stake out of his back. She did so quickly, but Stefan was still to weak to get up. By that time, she had regained most of her strength and Stefan pulled her face closer to his and nodded.

"Take Elena to the witch house!"

"What about you?" she shouted over the thunder. He shook his head.

"I'm not leaving until he's dead. Go!"

Nodding, Amelia raised herself from the ground and flashed over to the sacrifice altar, where saw Damon staring down at Claire's body in horror. She watched as he bent down and picked Claire's lifeless body in his arms and threw a look at Amelia.

"We found a way to save her!" Damon shouted over the lightning and wind. Amelia was taken back, shocked, but happy at the same time. "She's gonna be okay! You have Elena?"

"Yeah! I got her!"

"Stefan?"

"He wants to stay!"

Damon nodded once and continued with carrying Claire away. Amelia did the same with Elena, managing to escape during the uproar around them.

* * *

He thought it'd been the longest time that she was quiet. Death; that was the only way he'd get Clarissa King to be quiet. Damon was starting to miss the judgey, rude, copy-cat one liners that she threw at him or others _with _him. He was starting to miss how she would ramble on and on about what she hated about him or how she would lecture him about what he was doing wrong. It was the little things that he'd miss that he realized staring down at her lifeless, cold body. He would miss her smile, her laugh, the look that she would get in her eyes when something made her happy or even mad. She would survive this—_she _would. Damon, on the other hand, would not. And besides his brother, she was all he had. Besides his brother, she's the only person he would want to stay alive for.

Amelia followed closely behind him, carrying Elena's dead body as well. As Damon came to the first room in the witch house, Amelia set the dead Elena down on the couch so that her body slumped over the arm, and Damon did the same on the other side of it. He wasn't even focused on Elena at the moment, though he did wish that the elixir wasn't a complete scam and that it actually worked. _Claire, Claire, Claire._ His only thoughts were on her.

"I've spent my entire life loving you," Damon whispered softly in Claire's ear as he set her down. The sight of her made him want to punch a wall—she was so lifeless, so dead. Her chest was stained with dark liquid from where the stake had been entered, and her wrists were slit from where Klaus had gathered her magical blood. He pushed a piece of hair away from her eyes. "So don't you _dare _die on me today."

Her death was a sight he begged never to see again. He thought of all the times she'd said she hated him, all the times she looked at him with pure disgust. Truth is, he hated that she hated him. Sometimes, yes, she pissed him off; but he could take that if it meant spending the rest of his life seeing her every day. He loved her, despite her arrogance, her extreme opinions, and her hypocratic flaws. Though he didn't have much time left, he would never forgive himself if he'd let her die.

Jeremy suddenly rushed up from the basement, stopping short at the threshold of the door. "How are they?!"

"We don't know yet," Damon said quietly as he kept his eyes focused on Claire, waiting for her to return to life. He turned around at Jeremy anxiously. "What has Christopher said? Did the spell work? Will she be okay?"

Jeremy opened his mouth, but staring at Damon, he realized that Damon never really knew what the spell was about. With a hard swallow, the teenager began, "Um, Damon, Christopher—"

Before Jeremy could finish, there was a loud gasp. Elena choked for air, crossing the threshold from dead to very much alive. She took a moment to get aware of her surroundings, but suddenly Jeremy rushed up to her and Alaric, too, crowding her. Amelia stepped off, coming up to Damon's side as they both waited for Claire to return. Amelia sat down on the couch beside Claire, pleading for her sister's return. Damon straightened, running a hand through his hair in desperation. She should've woken by then, being that she was killed first. The clock ticked, and Damon bent down and stared desperately at Claire, chanting a plead over and over in his head a million times.

And then it started to happen. Inch by inch, the veins on her skin started to disappear. The grey hue enveloping her began to fade, replacing the dead skin with her perfect, lively white skin that claimed her a King. Damon tensed up and anxiously awaited Claire's arrival back into the world of the living, and he watched as her eyelids fluttered open to reveal her vivacious crystal blue eyes.

"Claire," the dark-haired vampire whispered breathlessly, finding himself utterly relieved that Christopher's German spell had worked. Amelia watched in anticipation as her sister took a moment to let her eyes wander around the witch house, trying to get a grip on reality. He could see the look of confusion on her face as she let her eyes drift slowly to his and she tried to sit up straighter.

"I-I was...dead," she noted quietly, her eyes staring into Damon's with fear and misunderstanding. Claire shifted, turning to Amelia, Elena, Jeremy, and Alaric, who all stood watching her return. Desperately, she let her eyes wander to all of them. "Klaus killed me! I was dead! Not human dead, vampire dead. _Dead, dead. _How did I survive that?"

"Claire—" Damon began, and her head snapped to him with a gasp.

"Damon, please tell me you didn't do anything stupid."

Damon shook his head and prepared to tell her that Christopher had found a spell that would bring her back from the dead, but before he could, Jeremy spoke first, surprising even him with his words.

"Damon wasn't the one who did something stupid, Claire." She locked eyes with the teenager, alarmed. Jeremy gulped. "Christopher did."

"What?" she whispered, low, soft, and bewildered. It all happened in a blur after that. Claire forced herself off the couch, despite Damon and Amelia's protests. There was no way that a spell had brought her back. Elijah would've known about it. She let her feet carry her through the witch house, although she was aware of those chasing her down, obviously concerned that she had only been alive for a few minutes and was already up and running. But she persisted, stumbling in the house until she finally made it down to the basement where Bonnie had been living temporarily and stopped, completely frozen. Damon, Amelia, and Alaric came up behind her on the staircase and were only left to witness the horror of what happened next.

"No!" Claire shouted, running and stumbling over to Christopher's grey, desiccated body that was lying on the wooden floor, surrounded by a ring of salt and lit candles. She found an opening and fit herself through it, dropping to her knees and shaking Christopher's shoulders, attempting to wake him up as she screamed his name over and over again. Amelia slowly walked forward and watched as tears spilled over in Claire's eyes as she clutched Christopher's dead body to her chest, not sure whether it was the fact that she had just come back to life that had made her so emotional or the fact that her ex-husband sacrificed himself for her that made her want to die, instead. Damon stared at Claire as Amelia walked up and tried to comfort her sister, who rocked back and forth as she cried into the dead man's shoulder.

He should've known. Spells like that didn't just happen. He should've known. If he had known, it would've been easier. She wouldn't have to have lost two people; she would only have to lose one. Now, in addition to losing Christopher for his sacrifice, she would lose him, too, to the werewolf bite. And his heart broke into pieces watching Clarissa King—the strong, independent, kickass Clarissa King—weep at her husband's side.

* * *

The days following the sacrifie ritual could only be summed up into one word: hell. They'd found Jenna's dead body on the floor of the Salvatore study, along with a note for Elena written by John with his ring lying by it's side. He confessed to killing Jenna, and the deed had made him so sick to his stomach that he decided, since it was his fault they were in the mess with Klaus in the first place, that the best thing for his daughter would be to leave Mystic Falls for good. He left the ring for Elena and future Gilbert generations, saying that they would need it more than he would, as he vowed to stop getting mixed into vampire business once and for all.

Claire spent her days in devestation, her only comfort being her sister. Stefan was too busy trying to make the arrangements for the funerals and trying to help the Gilberts over their aunt's death to want to bother Claire while she mourned. Damon left them all alone, not wanting to make things harder for Claire, especially, so soon after Christopher's death. He'd decided not to tell her about the werewolf bite—he hadn't told anyone, in fact. Because Elijah betrayed them on the night of the ritual and had let his brother trick him into keeping him alive, Katherine and Klaus were the only two vampires that knew about his fatal secret.

On the day of Jenna and Christopher's funerals, Damon met Stefan at the Gilbert house so they could take Elena to the cemetery. Amelia had already told the Salvatore brothers that she would take Claire, and although she offered Damon a space in her car, Damon respectfully declined. If he spoke to Claire, she would know. If he looked at Claire, she would know. She couldn't know.

"We all set?" asked Stefan.

"Yeah," Damon alerted him as he approached his brother in the Gilbert living room. "Plenty of room with the Gilbert family plot. Jenna, obviously, will be buried there and Christopher will be buried with the Fells. I compelled two of the gravediggers to do the dirty work. How's Elena doing?"

"She lost the only parents she had," Stefan replied solemnly. Damon nodded in understanding. "John killed Jenna so she wouldn't be a vampire and then he left. She's in shock."

Damon was hesitant, but after a moment of silence, he looked up and asked quietly, "And...uh, Claire? Did you talk to her yet?"

Stefan and Damon eyed each other very carefully until the younger brother pointedly crossed his arms and stared at the dark-haired Salvatore with prompting eyes.

"Is there a reason you haven't?" Damon shifted uncomfortably, and Stefan realized that he had caught Damon red-handed. Stefan sighed. "Damon, she's not...handling it well, Christopher's death. She's heartbroken over the fact that he...sacrificed himself for her. You know how she is. You should talk to her."

"I don't think that's a good idea. I'm not the right person to be helping her through this."

"Why? Because you're in love with her?" Stefan didn't mean it as angry, and it didn't come out that way, either. It came out as if Stefan was trying to pressure his brother, who was so worried about what she would say to him that he didn't want to go within two feet of her. "Damon, don't forget that before she turned to me, _you _were the person she went to for everything. Like it or not, you will always be friends first. And you're going to be friends for a long, long time."

Damon looked up at Stefan and tried to bite his tongue to refrain from saying anything. If only Stefan knew what was really going on...he wouldn't be saying the things he was. He didn't have a long, long time. He had a day—two, at most. Then, he would be as dead as those they were burying in an hour.

* * *

Claire stood in front of the mirror in one of the bedrooms of the lofty King home, avoiding her reflection as she combed her long, stick-straight blonde hair calmly and selectively. She knew she looked like the stereotypical widow minus the black netted veil, but she didn't care. In fact, she didn't know whether to be angry or grateful that Christopher had sacrificed himself just to save her. She knew that he loved her, whether he was the one to cut the ties and say the awful things he did or not. The fact that he had gotten so angry at her for lying proved that. She wanted to be furious with him for doing something so stupid, but that was foolish. He did it for _her, _and the only thing she could do was live her life and make it worthwhile.

That didn't mean that his death didn't hurt like hell, though.

Amelia had supplied her with food and shelter ever since the sacrifice ritual. She would normally stay at the boarding house, but she couldn't bare it. Stefan came to see her once or twice, to check on her, but Damon didn't. He stayed as far away from her as humanly possible since the death of her husband, and it just confused her. She didn't know whether to be mad or grateful with him, either.

All she knew was that she was hurting inside and that she needed someone. The truth of the matter was, however, she didn't believe that person should be Damon. As much as she wanted him, it felt like a betrayal, almost, to be even near him so soon after Christopher's death. Regardless, there was still something inside of her that wanted him by her side. But Amelia and Stefan were enough; and for that, she was most definitely grateful.

She'd stopped crying, mainly because she was sick of it. She only cried at times of dire situations, and this was a dire situation that would unfortunately never go away. But she knew there would be no stopping of the tears at the funeral. Jenna...Christopher...she didn't want to face either of their graves, if she were being truthful. It was too much.

"Knock, knock," Amelia announced softly as she knocked on the door of Claire's toom in the King home and stepped inside. Claire turned to her sister, who was dressed in a black dress similar to her own, her hair swept away from her face in an elegant bun. The older sister noticed quickly that in her younger sister's hand, she held a folded piece of paper.

"Are we leaving now?" Claire asked quietly, stepping away from the dresser. Amelia nodded.

"Soon. But here." She reached out and extended the folded piece of paper to her sister. Claire looked at it, confounded, and Amelia shrugged. "Bonnie, uh, dropped it off earlier. She said...she said that _he_ wanted her to give it to you."

Claire stiffened, and after a moment, she tentatively took the folded paper from Amelia's hands. She looked down at it, only imagining what would be written inside. The thought made her head spin with grief. Amelia saw the look of anxiousness on her sister's face, so she cleared her throat and started to back away from Claire's room.

"Read it, take your time. I'll wait downstairs for you."

Amelia gave her sister a small smile and turned to walk outside, but she was stopped when Claire called her back.

"Amelia?" The teenager turned and was surprised when her sister hesitated for a moment and then rushed up to her, pulling her into a hug. Momentarily, Amelia processed the situation, but then she wrapped her arms around Claire as tight as she could and Claire did the same. The two beautiful sisters hugged for a long time before Claire whispered, "Thank you. For not being dead and all."

Amelia gave a soft, solemn chuckle, but when she pulled away Claire could see tears threaten at her eyes. "Don't mention it, sis."

She gave her sister's hand a tight squeeze and then left to wait for the grieving widow to join her downstairs and head to the funerals. Once Amelia was gone, Claire turned back into the room and sighed to herself, willing her eyes not to spill over in tears. She didn't want to cry yet—if she cried, she wouldn't stop.

Cautiously, she opened the folded letter to find Christopher's handwriting scribbled down the page. With a deep breath, she read:

_My beautiful Clarissa, _

_I spent over a century in darkness, trapped underground with no way out, and surrounded by twenty-six ravenous vampires who would do anything to get out. And while the others craved blood on their lips, I did not. Despite our situation, despite the fact that you were not originally intended to be a Fell, all I wanted was you. I sat in the corridors of the dark cave for a hundred years and...all I could think about was you. _

She couldn't help herself. As she read the words, hot tears drifted down her face, but she didn't dare release the letter. She gripped the page so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and she couldn't care less if she sobbed again.

_Knowing your stubbornness, I can only imagine what you must think right now and how angry you must be with me for wanting to give up my life for your own. But I don't want you to think of this as a sacrifice, I want you to think of this as a new start. A new beginning. You had saved me countless times down in that dark tomb, intended or not. It's about time I save you. _

Elena led the crowd through the cemetery to her family plot. Caroline, Bonnie, Claire, Stefan, Amelia, Jeremy, Alaric, and Damon all followed closely behind towards the tombstone of Jenna Sommers. Elena's hands shook with sadness that she felt inside for the loss of her aunt. But though John had done what he thought was right, saving her from an eternal life, Elena was sure that her aunt would've chosen to die either way.

The brunette stopped at the graves of her family and placed a rose on each of the plots—the plots that listed her dead guardians. Not bothering to hold in tears, she cried as she placed three roses on each of them and stood. Everyone hung his or her heads in silence as she sniffled and turned around, walking back to her comforting group of friends. Alaric stepped forward next and placed a rose on Jenna's grave for his dead girlfriend and turned, holding back tears.

And although Claire didn't want to, Amelia nudged her forward to walk to the other grave they were going to visit. She thought she'd cried all she could, but when she reached Christopher's grave and saw his name on the tombstone, she broke down. Her sister reached out to console her, but Claire just sunk to the ground and placed her own rose on top of her husband's grave, weeping as much as a human widow would.

_Although our marriage made you Clarissa Fell, you never once stopped being Clarissa King. That is what I love most about you. And with my death, it's time for you to move on. Our human lives were forced into unison, and our vampire lives have been complicated enough. My hopes for you, my beautiful wife, is to find happiness in your eternity. True happiness. _

Claire looked up, unwilling to look at her husband's fresh grave any longer, and she caught sight of someone moving away from the crowd. Damon, with his head hung, walked away from the cemetery, unable to help eyeing her. When he saw her eyes capture his, he gave her a tight smile and kept walking. Claire rose from her position on the ground and wiped away at her red eyes to give the best smile she could produce in the circumstance. Behind her, Stefan came up and touched her arm in comfort, and Claire looked at him with a sad smile, but her eyes inevitably flickered back to the other Salvatore brother, who was moving away from her as if the sight was too much for him.

_I have never heard the words "I love you" from your mouth, and now I suppose I never will. But the truth is, I never had to hear the words. You loved me in your own way, Clarissa. You love everyone in your own way. But what you must know is that I love you with all of my heart. I will forever be grateful that by some act of God I was privileged enough to be called your husband and I was able to call you my wife. _

_Human or vampire, I have always loved you, and I always will. _

_Christopher. _

While Jeremy and Elena clung to each other for support and Amelia cried into her sister's arms, Bonnie backed away from the crowd and made sure that she was not seen slipping away. She was the only one who knew the truth; the only one who could make Claire's pain dissolve. She turned and walked to the place in the cemetery where she'd promised she'd be, and once she reached the statue that would shield them from her friends, she found the human waiting for her.

Christopher Fell straightened upon her presence.

"Did you give her the letter?" he asked anxiously, a human gleam in his eyes. Bonnie still found it hard to believe at how he'd transformed by a simple spell. She knew what the spell entailed once she had translated it, but she'd only told Jeremy half of what it went over. Christopher did have to be sacrificed in order to save Claire, that part was true, and it had to be done before Claire died, yes, but the spell required a balance in nature. By taking Christopher's vampire life force away, it restored his human soul. Hours after Claire had found him in the witch house, he had woken up with a fresh heartbeat. She cast a spell to create a duplicate body that she let Damon bury.

But most importantly, she had turned a vampire into a human again.

"Um, yeah. I did. I told Amelia that you wrote it before you died." Bonnie swallowed thickly while Christopher nodded in thanks and looked off into the distance, staring in the direction of the widow, who was crying like he'd never seen her cry before. It broke his heart to see her this way, but he knew it was for the best. Bonnie looked in the direction as well, feeling guilt swarm her. She looked back at him curiously. "Why don't you just tell her that you're alive? That you're...human? You can still leave, you know, if that's what you really want."

Christopher hesitated for a moment or two, but then he looked back at the witch and shook his head.

"The best thing for her is to think that I'm dead. If she doesn't, she'll never learn to grow. She'll never know what it means to love somebody. I'm helping her realize what love feels like." He looked towards Damon's direction and sighed. "And hopefully she'll put it to good use."

Bonnie realized who he was looking towards, and she looked back at the vampire with a scowl. "Don't tell me you faked your own death so that you could get Damon and Claire _together_."

The bronze-haired human chuckled softly and removed his eyes from Damon, looking at Bonnie with a soft smile. "Bonnie, you don't understand. This wasn't just for Claire, it was for me, too. As selfish as it sounds, I did this for myself. Not only did the spell turn me human again, it gives me a chance at a real life! Even before Katherine turned me and I ended up in that tomb, my life had never really...been _mine. _I was a Fell; I had responsibilities. One of those responsibilities was to marry a beautiful girl and...do I regret it? Of course not. But it's about time I get a second chance. She should, too."

The two were silent for a while, processing his words, until Bonnie finally asked, "Are you ever gonna tell her?"

The witch eyed the human, searching for signs of hope that he'd one day return and reveal to her friends what they had done so she could rid herself of the secret. At last, he shrugged. "Who knows? I may, I may not."

Bonnie scowled. "Could you be any more vague?"

"Here." Christopher cracked a smile and looked down, reaching into his pocket to grab something. He produced his wedding band, encrusted with lapis lazuli that acted as his former daylight ring. Bonnie took it hesitantly and looked up at him with confused eyes.

"What's this for? Do you want me to give it to Claire?"

"No. I want you to keep it. If you ever need me, Bonnie, just do a locator spell. If you're really in trouble, I promise I'll come back." He paused and looked up towards Claire's direction with a sigh. "If...if _she's _ever in trouble..."

"I know." Bonnie nodded and clenched the ring in her hand, encasing it in a fist. She smiled up at him sadly. "Good luck, Christopher. I hope this is worth it."

"It is." The new human smiled at Bonnie and then walked away in the opposite directions of all the vampires and humans who were all misty-eyed. The witch sighed, watching Christopher leave, and she knew that the likelihood of it was that she would have to take this secret to the grave.

* * *

When the dust had settled and everyone was ready to move the melancholic event elsewhere, Stefan came up to the isolated Damon who was staring off to the sunset in nostalgia, frozen in time. Not wanting to impose on his brother's silent thoughts, Stefan came at a safe distance behind the dark-haired vampire and put his hands in his pockets.

"We're...gonna head back to the house."

"I think I'll skip the coffee and tea cakes."

"Damon, Claire needs us right now." As much as Stefan knew Damon was trying to be a good person and was trying to keep his distance, he also knew it was the opposite of what Claire wanted. "So does Elena. They both need us. All of us."

The bitter vampire sighed. "And then what's the plan, Stefan? The curse is broken. How does one go about killing an all-powerful wolf-vamp and his two-faced older brother?"

Stefan closed his eyes and shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Well we need to get an idea. Fast!" Damon turned around to face his younger brother, who was standing around waiting for Damon to come back with him. Stefan shook his head again tightly.

"I'm not gonna let Elena or Claire lose anyone else. We've all suffered enough."

"I wouldn't make any promises, brother."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Tyler Lockwood bit me." Damon rolled up the jacket of his suit to reveal the infected area on the crease of his elbow. He witnessed his brother immediately knot his eyebrows and step forward to examine the bite closer. Damon looked down at it himself, feeling as if every time he looked at it, it was getting worse. With a shrug, he added, "It's actually more of a nip, really, but...there it is."

Stefan touched his brother's arm in disbelief, trying to blink his eyes as if to get rid of the lethal sight. Damon yanked his arm back, having let Stefan look at it long enough, and Stefan looked up at his brother with teary eyes. Damon avoided the gaze of his sibling at all costs, not wanting to see the look on his younger brother's sad face, fearing that it might make him feel sad as well.

At last, Stefan said softly, "We'll find something. A cure."

Damon scoffed. "There is no cure, Stefan."

"Christopher found a way to bring Claire back from the dead!" Stefan persisted, despite Damon's negative attitude. "He found a way when there was no way. Hey!" The vampire brought Damon's attention back to him with a serious look. "I will do this."

Damon eyed his brother carefully, but didn't respond to Stefan's declaration. instead, he sighed. "You want to do something for me? Keep this from Claire. The last thing she needs is another grave to mourn."

With a small, bittersweet smile, Damon clamped a hand on his younger brother's shoulder and watched as Stefan looked as if he was breaking apart. Unable to bear the sight, Damon turned on his heel and walked off from the rest of his friends, leaving Stefan to watch as his brother poetically walked off into the shimmering sunset, ready to die.

* * *

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**RHatch89: **Thanks! :)

**HPuni101: **Thank you! Here's the next chapter!

**ThisIsMeAndYou: **Yeah he really does. Unfortunately, it's not gonna be that easy for Stefan. He's gonna hit a lot of bumps on the road and Elena and Amelia will be the casualties. Think of it this way: they're basically the Stefan/Elena/Damon triangle, except instead it's the Elena/Stefan/Amelia triangle. So unfortunately his split decisions between Amelia and Elena won't end anytime soon but it'll be fun to see what happens along the way! Thanks for reviewing!

**klandgraf2007: **Well Claire wasn't under the bite. Though now that I think about it, I guess she kind of did show some symptoms. Anyways, it's only Damon under the bite and the flashbacks are gonna be pretty interesting! Haha thanks so much! Here's the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed it!


	36. As I Lay Dying

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**As I Lay Dying**

She'd been staring at the cardboard box ever since Stefan had dropped it off earlier in the morning. It sat on her bed, taunting her, almost laughing at her pathetic presence. She wanted to kick it, to throw it, to punch it, and maybe to burn it, but she just stood across from it and stared. Everything Christopher Fell owned since returning from the tomb could fit in one box, and it was in her possession. She had to dispose of it. It was her responsibility.

Because he was dead—gone. As in not alive.

"It'll get easier." Claire's eyes broke away from staring at the box and, without moving an inch, she looked over her shoulder and realized who was standing at the door. Damon cleared his throat as he slipped his hands into his pockets solemnly and added, "But you know that."

He stood behind her, merely a few feet away, facing the back of her head anxiously waiting for her to turn around so he could see her face one final time. But without moving, she sucked in a deep breath and chided bitterly, "So you finally decided it was worth talking to me again?"

"I'm sorry," he apologized quickly, causing Claire to straighten herself with a confused look that was hidden from him. Since when did Damon come to see her and the first thing out of his mouth was an apology? "I wasn't sure you wanted me around with, uh, everything going on."

She opened her mouth to try to come up with a response, but there was none that she could give him. What was the correct amount of time to mourn your deceased spouse and then run into the arms of the man you'd been sleeping with for nearly a century? Into the arms of the man that he knew you had feelings for? Into the arms of a man that you knew loved you? Did she give it a day? A month? A year? Every which way, a hole in her stomach burned with guilt.

Slowly, Claire turned around, swallowing thickly as she whispered, "I just don't understand why he did it. I didn't want to, but I was willing to sacrifice myself for Jenna. When the time came, I...I accepted it. I didn't want it, but I accepted it. I wasn't supposed to live. He shouldn't have died for me."

Damon paused, studying her face for a few moments, remembering every inch that made her beautiful features, before he finally brought his eyes up to hers and shook his head. "I wish I could say that I agree with you."

"But you don't. You never do." She smiled slightly, but a tear involuntarily fell down her face. She reached up to wipe it off, but then a sudden groan escaped her frustrated lips. "God, I thought I was over this whole crying thing."

"Hey..." He stepped closer, close enough to intoxicate her with his breath as he reached up and wiped a stray tear off of her face. She stared at him, watching as his fingers lingered for a moment or two longer than they should've before he tried to give her a smile. "You will be over it. Eventually."

"Thank you," she replied quietly as his fingers somehow found their way in her hair, brushing a few strands away from her face. He was mesmerized and she could tell, feeling slightly uncomfortable with the situation at her fingertips. But regardless, she reached up and touched the back of his hand, moving it away from her face and locking her fingers with his. He found comfort in the fact that she still cared enough not to slap him away, even after the death of her husband. And if he needed anything at that moment, it was that comfort. He hoped it never went away.

"Claire," Damon began quietly, looking down for a brief moment before sighing, "I need to be honest with you." She waited without speaking, watching as he took a brief moment before looking back up at her and confessing, "I...never broke that vase."

A moment passed, allowing Claire to process the statement for a moment, but then she gave an unimpressed frown. "Damon, we've been through this already—"

"I'm serious this time. I didn't break it. When you came to my house and started throwing a fit, I was completely clueless. But because of what you did to me, I let you believe that I did it because I hated you anyways."

She scoffed. "Well, if you didn't do it, then who did?"

The two stopped and thought to themselves before coming up with two different answers as the same time:

"Stefan."

"Amelia."

Damon watched as Claire's lips turned from displeased to suddenly happy, laughing at their outbursts as she realized that, though multiple things carried on their mixed feelings throughout time, the true cause of it wasn't even of their own doing. The dark-haired Salvatore tried to picture her laugh in his head, trying to get it to stick with him for the hours he had left. He wanted to remember it—he wanted to remember her. The last memory he wanted was her—to be in the position they were now, to hear her laugh, to witness her cry, but most importantly, to feel her lips one last time. And when she realized that his gaze had shifted from hers down to her lips, she deduced quickly what it meant and felt a kick in her stomach telling her to knock it off. Clearing her throat free of the seduction, Claire released Damon's hand from her own and turned her head.

"Um, I—"

Damon backed away, shielding his eyes. "No, I know. I'm sorry."

She turned her head back to him, grateful that he created space between the two vampires so she wouldn't be tempted a second time. She looked at him across the way, sighing, "It's not that I don't _want _to, I just...I can't right now. If you...well, let's just say I won't take it very well. I need some time."

He stared for a moment and then produced the best smile he could muster, though he ached inside. Her offer was sour; he wouldn't have enough time, but she didn't know that. He wished, so badly, that he could die with the taste of her lips on his for one final time, but he'd pushed his luck far enough. He knew he would have to leave her, the girl he loved since he was old enough to know what love felt like, without one last kiss.

"I understand." Damon nodded and turned for the door. "Take all the time you need."

And just as he moved away, right about to cross the threshold of the bedroom and head for the exit of the King estate, he could hear Claire call out over his shoulder, "I'll...uh, see you later, okay?"

He stopped just short of the threshold and knew that the next words following out of his mouth were going to be a lie. He turned around to see Claire as she turned away from him and back to the cardboard box of Clarissa's things, and he just nodded to himself and whispered, "Yeah. I'll see you later."

* * *

When Damon returned to the boarding house, everything was still and peaceful—the exact way he wanted it. The moment he stepped through the door, he knew what he had to do. He shred his jacket and laid it over a chair in the parlor before heading to the liquor cabinet in the room adjacent. He spent a moment shuffling around with the liquor, searching for the best bourbon that he bought to save for a special occasion. When he found it, a small, nostalgic smile came across his face as he grabbed one of the crystal glasses and shut the cabinet. He walked back over to the parlor, opening the bottle of bourbon and pouring it into the glass for his discretion. The liquid burned down his throat, reminding him of the simple pleasures of life—alcohol. He set the bottle of bourbon down and reached up to pull his sleeve back and observe the growing wolf bite posioning his bloodstream.

Still with the bourbon glass in his hand, Damon walked over to the drapes darkening the Salvatore parlor, and without further adieu, he drew them back so light shined into the room and lit the centuries-old furniture. The light streamed in his face and he soaked it in, letting his mind really feel the contact the sun made with his skin. After another small smile, Damon knocked back the rest of the bourbon in his cup to refresh the taste, walked back to where he'd set down the bourbon bottle and let the glass join it, and then stepped to the side to observe the light shining right at him. A part of him wished the bite wasn't real, but it was. And since there was no way of getting rid of his inevitable death, it didn't really matter, did it? Whether he died then or in two hours or in another day, he was still going to die.

And to Damon, being in charge of how he kicked the bucket was the most important thing to him. He sure as hell wasn't going to hallucinate his time as a human and go certifiable before dying a slow and painful death. No, he wanted to go down with dignity, so he moved his fingers over his daylight ring and peeled it off his swollen finger. Damon twirled the metal in his hand, knowing that the second he let his family crest drop to the floor, it was over. It remained on his fingertips for a moment or two, but then he let it fall to the ground, immediately feeling the effects of the sun on his face. His skin burned, sizzling and turning red with passing seconds. He fought back the urge to groan from the excruciating pain and let his hands drift out as he welcomed death. Seconds passed, and his skin bubbled with burns from the toxic light.

_Why the hell is it taking so lo_—?

All of a sudden, Damon was tackled to the ground in the shadows, immediately healing his skin. Stefan was hovering above him, gripping his brother by the collar of his shirt.

"Get off of me!" Damon growled, but he didn't have the strength to enforce his request. Stefan flashed them over to the wall between the parlor and the foyer, raising Damon above him and slamming him against the wall with brute force.

"You're not doing this!" Stefan snapped. Damon rolled his eyes.

"Just did." Again, Stefan flashed, this time closer to the wall by the basement entrance in the hallway. Damon tried to keep his brother at arm's length, but again, he was too weak to do something about his brother's strength. Instead, he tried to reason, "You know what happened to Rose, Stefan."

"I don't care," Stefan spat before moving again, this time into the basement cell before pulling the door shut, sealing Damon inside. Damon groaned from the pain of being manhandled, but Stefan shook his head and looked through the bars on the door with a serious expression. "You're not dying today."

Stefan pulled the lever on the door, locking Damon inside of it so he didn't go ravenous. Damon turned on his side to stare up at Stefan. "What's the plan, Superman?"

"I'm gonna find a way out of this."

"Oh, right. A miracle cure. Good luck with that one."

"I've got Bonnie looking for something. Anything."

"Always the hero, Stefan. Just tell me goodbye and get it over with..." His sarcastic, slightly rude comment would've been more effective had he not started to cough at the end, turning over to his side as he felt liquid escape his mouth. Blood. It splattered all over his hand and onto the cellar floor, indicating that Damon's bite was starting to get to the dramatics. Stefan swallowed.

"Lie still. Conserve your strength."

With that said, Stefan left to find a way to prevent his brother from his certain death.

* * *

"I don't _want _to watch an irrelevant, idiotic movie about the inaccurate portrayal of the Civil War," Claire complained as Caroline and Amelia practically were dragging her through the town square. While Caroline and Amelia looked like normal people with smiles and happy bright colors clouding them, Claire had black sunglasses over her eyes, black jeans, a black shirt, and a black leather jacket, though it was hot as hell outside. She looked like the harbinger of death—and that was an understatement. Before they'd even stepped foot out of the King home, Caroline had to fight her to run a brush through her hair.

Caroline gasped, offended. "Are you kidding me? Scarlett O'Hara is my inspiration, Claire!"

Claire tilted her head down to look at Caroline over her sunglasses with an endless amount of judgment. "It's about time you get a new inspiration, Caroline."

She frowned. "Just because you're Judy Moody does _not _give you the right to spoil my favorite movie!"

"Caroline," Amelia warned her, shaking her head and giving the young blonde vampire a pointed look. Caroline sighed and let Amelia speak to Claire, who was literally dragging her feet trying to stop them from participating in Mystic Falls's movie event, featuring _Gone With the Wind_. "Claire...come on. You need to get out of the house. Elena and Jeremy are here, too."

Claire's expression remained blank. "So because Elena and Jeremy decide they want to move on with their lives, it means that I have to?"

"Look, you—take these stupid things off!" Amelia stopped them in the middle of the field and ripped her sister's sunglasses off her face. Claire opened her mouth to protest as Amelia shoved them to Caroline, but she didn't get a chance to once Amelia started her lecture. "You loved him...I know that. We all know that. He was your husband, how could you _not _love him? I know that you're hurting but...we're all hurting, okay? So for three hours, we are going to sit with Elena and Jeremy and we are going to pretend like no one died and that there isn't a box of your dead husband's things in your room waiting to be sifted through. For three hours, we are going to have a life again, got it? This is the first step!"

Claire scowled. "Amelia, it's been _two days_. You expect me to have a life again after two days?"

Caroline sighed and interrupted, shifting the picnic baskets on her arms before she complained, "It's not about how fast you recover, Claire. All that matters is that you do. He sacrificed himself so you could _live, _not sit around in the house all day and kick yourself for being alive." She gave a small smile. "He wanted you to start over."

Amelia and Caroline watched as Claire looked around at all the humans in the park before sighing. "Fine. Fine, we can sit and watch the movie. For three hours, we can have a life, but after that..." She reached over and snatched the sunglasses from Caroline's head and fit them on her face. "After that, I'm going to my room and I will kick myself all I want."

"That's all we're asking," Caroline agreed as Claire shoved past them and walked over to where Elena and Jeremy were sitting. Amelia looked over at Caroline and crossed her arms, where the young, peppy blonde shrugged. "What? It's what we're asking for, right?"

Amelia rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before following in Claire's footsteps, Caroline following close behind her. Claire came up beside Jeremy and took her sunglasses off, looking around at the stupidity of Mystic Falls. Too many imposters were standing around in fake Party City 1800s gowns, not even comparing to the real thing that she had to wear until it became outdated.

"Hey! There you guys are!" Caroline shouted as she and Amelia came up to the two Gilbert siblings. Caroline gave them both a wide smile and set down two picnic baskets. "Who's hungry?!"

"Are we really doing this?" Jeremy groaned. Claire scoffed.

"Apparently, we are _really _doing this."

"We are going to take a page from Scarlett!" Caroline declared, interrupting their side conversation. Claire shot Caroline an unimpressed look, but the blonde barreled on, "We made it through the war! I know you guys went through hell and...my mom knows I'm a vampire...so basically, it's like Atlanta has burned. And yet, in spite of everything, we persevere!"

Claire and Jeremy stared down at the over-cheery Caroline, merely blinking at her. Claire shrugged in disbelief and muttered, "I may take credit for being her sire, but I do _not _take credit for her peppiness. This is what happens when you turn a cheerleader into a vampire."

Jeremy chuckled, but followed in Claire's movements as she lowered herself onto the picnic blanket and reached forward to grab a sandwich Caroline had provided to them. The sun beamed down at them in the middle of the square and the five friends sat around, attempting to create some level of normalcy in the wake of all the chaos.

Around a half an hour later, they were still sitting around under the sun, as Claire had realized that Caroline and Amelia tricked her into coming an hour earlier than when they started the film. While they were all chatting amongst themselves, noticing all the period dressers around them, Claire looked up to spot Stefan approaching the picnic blanket as well. She rolled her eyes and scoffed at him as he came closer.

"I shouldn't even have been surprised. You were never one to resist an 'epic' romance."

Stefan gave her a small smile but bent down to look at her. "Uh, Claire, will you come take a walk with me?"

With knotted eyebrows, she amended, "I'm having a strange feeling that I should make it clear that _I _am not your epic romance."

"Please," he urged, looking at her with serious eyes for such a light-hearted situation that Caroline and Amelia were trying to get her to partake in. Caroline, Elena, Amelia, and Jeremy all looked at Stefan with confusion, but finally, Claire agreed to his request and got up to go with him for a walk. They moved away from the crowd and over to a deserted area of the town square, where Claire sighed.

"You know, I'm supposed to be having a life for three hours. Your doom and gloom is making it hard for me to have a life."

"I know. I wish this could wait...but it can't." He turned to her as they came to a slow and Claire looked into his eyes, seeing the sadness behind them. She shook her head.

"Stef, you're making me nervous. I know that look. I hate that look."

He dropped his eyes from hers and nervously started, "Listen, um, the other night...when Damon and Caroline were helping you and Tyler escape...do you, uh, do you remember what happened?"

She shrugged, bewildered. "Yeah. I tried to talk him down, but he was transforming too fast. He couldn't stop it and he...lunged at me but Damon stopped him. Stefan, what's going on?"

"Damon was bitten, Claire," Stefan finished after a brief moment of hesitation. And once the words were out of his mouth and he could see the look on his best friend's face, he knew there was no turning back. She blinked at him, incredulous.

"No..." Stefan didn't respond to her, and she shifted as she realized what was happening. "No! No, that means he's...he's..."

"Yeah..."

"Oh, my God, he..." Claire shut her eyes as she felt a sickness rock her stomach and she tried not to cry again. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not only did she lose Christopher, but Damon too? Did the world hate her? Did she do something to some higher power that made him or her want to punish Claire for the rest of eternity? How could this happen? "He came to the house this morning and...and I told him I needed time and I...I don't..."

"He told me not to tell you," Stefan confessed as Claire held a hand to her mouth and tried to contain her emotions, "but I figured, with everything that you two have been through, if you want to talk to him, I wouldn't wait." She nodded carefully, but Stefan could see the sadness begin to build up in her own eyes. Therefore, he reached down and placed both hands on her shoulders as he looked into her eyes and said sternly, "Hey, it's not over. There might be a cure, but I have to find Klaus to get it."

"Klaus?" Claire repeated, confused. "Why?"

"I asked Bonnie for help from the witches and even though they refused to tell me anything, she heard a name. That name was Klaus."

"Okay." Claire nodded slowly multiple times. "Okay. I'm coming with you, let's go—"

Stefan widened his eyes. "Are you insane? No! Klaus thinks your dead."

"I am not going to sit around and let Damon die! I'm not doing it!" she snapped at him, causing Stefan to flinch from her demeanor. Claire shook her head at him desperately. "I lost Christopher! I lost him because he was selfless enough to die in my place. I will not twiddle my thumbs if there's a chance that I could be doing something that would save Damon's life!"

"You have to let me do this alone, Claire, you have to," Stefan begged, but she wasn't retaining any of his pleas. "If Klaus knows you're alive, he'll kill you. Then Christopher would have died for nothing and so would you."

"I don't care," she spat.

"Well I do!"

"What the hell is going on?" a third party demanded, and Stefan and Claire looked beside them to see Amelia as she jogged up to the two of them, concern filled in her eyes. She looked at Stefan for answers as Claire slowly began to back away, deciding to take things into her own hands. But Stefan knew what she was doing before she even thought of it, and his hand came down on her arm and he gripped it so hard she didn't dare to go anywhere. It was then she regretting weening him on human blood so that he actually happened to stand a chance against her.

"_Don't _let her out of your sight," he ordered Amelia, shoving Claire to her. Amelia nodded as she took the unhappy, growling Claire, but she looked back at Stefan with a confused look.

"Okay, fine but...what's happening?"

Stefan looked at Claire. "She can tell you. I've got to go."

"Stefan—" She moved towards him to try to get him to tell her what was going on, but he was gone too quickly. She watched him walk away, but she couldn't go too far as she maintained a grip on Claire's arm to honor Stefan's request to keep her in close sight. Amelia turned and looked to Claire for answers this time.

"Well?" Amelia prompted.

Claire looked off at Stefan in the distance and whispered, "Damon's going to die."

* * *

Damon sat on the floor of the Salvatore cellar, his breath slow but air barely making it all the way to his lungs. He could feel his skin start to heat up, and he had already had about three coughing fits. Unlike when Rose was sick, he didn't have Nurse Elena taking care of him. No one was taking care of him; he was alone with his thoughts in a dark prison, awaiting his final breath.

And that wasn't even the worst of it.

The dark prison transformed, and that's when he knew he was in trouble.

_He didn't realize it this quickly, of course, because the sight before him was one from his memories. He was turning a corner into the parlor of the old King estate, staring at the back of a twenty-year-old Clarissa King who was staring at the fireplace. Damon debated for a moment, deciding whether or not to go inside, but his judgment took the best of him. He walked into the parlor and stood slightly behind her, knowing that she took notice in his presence. _

_"What do you want?" __she hiccuped, turning her cheek and wiping something off her face. Damon took a step closer. _

_"Are you angry with me?"  
_

_Clarissa scoffed and turned around at him. He could see a redness to her eyes, but didn't mention it. "Angry with you? What on Earth could I possibly be angry with you about, Damon? Perhaps the fact that you go off to the war tomorrow? No, there is nothing to be angry with you about!" _

_Damon locked his jaw. "I didn't think it mattered so much to you." _

_Her eyes widened, and he realized that he'd hit a nerve. Truth be told, he didn't know why she was so angry. She lost the right to feel that way when she kicked him out of her bedroom after telling him that she didn't want to be his wife. She lost that right when she stormed into his house and broke his father's drinking glass. Why was she acting the way she was, he didn't know, and it bothered him. He didn't join the war to provoke her, but yes, maybe not telling her intentionally until the last minute was strategy on his part. Nevertheless, he couldn't have expected what happened next. In a flash of blind rage, she reached out and took the poker by the fireplace and aimed it at his head. It was impressively good aim; however, he ducked before it struck him. When Damon returned to a standing position to face her, his eyes went huge.  
_

_"You thought correctly!" she determined, giving him a small shrug. "Are you satisfied with your dishonesty? Haven't you punished me enough? Here's a thought for you: perhaps you should go out into the war and get killed? That ought to teach me a lesson!" _

_Damon growled, "You witch! You blame me for dishonesty when you were the one being dishonest with me for twenty years of your life! If you didn't want to be with me, you should have made that clear from the beginning! You have no right in what I do with my life anymore!"  
_

_"Fine!" she shouted at him, turning away. "Then leave! You have no right to be in my home!" _

_"Fine!" he shouted back before storming out, taking off down the right corridor. But suddenly, there was an echoing sound in the distance_—_crying. Weeping, maybe. He slowed down, and it felt like time was stopping. Damon looked around with sluggish eyes as his consciousness drifted from his memory and the real world. But before he left the sour memory, he heard another echo._

_"Damon." _

_Damon turned to face a modernized Claire standing right in front of him, looking with eyes full of pity. He raised his eyebrows. _

_"Claire?" _

_"Don't you see?" she continued, as she drew closer. He blinked a few times to make sure it was really her, but all he could see was her coming near him and the sounds in his ears, the crying, was getting more prevalent. "I didn't want you to leave. I was heartbroken. I wanted you to stay with me." _

_"What?"_

_Suddenly, Damon whipped to the other side of him, where he was back in the King's parlor watching as Clarissa, with tears down her face, shouted, "Haven't you punished me enough?!" _

_"I...I..." Damon stuttered as Claire touched his arm behind him. He jerked back in surprise, but she just shook her head. _

_"I wanted you to stay_ _with me.__" _

And just like that, he was forced out of the warped memory, as clueless as when he was put in. He reached down in confusion and pulled back his sleeve, realizing that the bite had spread all the way down his arm, bringing him closer to the final stages before his death. With a groan, he leaned back against the boulder in the cell as he heard shuffling at the door and a human heartbeat on the other side. He didn't bother looking in the direction of all the noise.

"Well that looks bad," said Alaric as he looked through the bars on the cellar door at the helpless Damon, who just groaned again.

"It feels worse." Alaric set down a crystal glass on the ledge of the barred door as Damon barreled on, "My memories are _haunting_ me, Ric." He turned to the door. "Please tell me you have something for that."

Alaric waved the bourbon bottle in his unseen hand. "Double shot."

"That's good," Damon choked out as he lifted himself from the ground with a heave and stumbled over to the door. "Oh good," he muttered as he saw his Salvatore signet ring accompanying the glass, and before taking the alcohol, he slid the daylight ring back onto his finger. "So my brother sent you for suicide watch?"

"He's just trying to help."

"He's doing what he always does," he corrected bitterly as he turned around, "trying to right the wrongs of the past...ahh!" Alaric turned away as Damon doubled over inside of his cell, coughing up blood again for what seemed like the umpteenth time since his brother had locked him in the dungeon. When he recovered, Damon spat out, "You should want me dead. I'm the reason Jenna got killed."

Alaric shook his head and took a drink. "I don't blame you for Jenna. I blame John for Jenna."

Damon scoffed. "Well, if I hadn't ruined his first two sacrifices in the first place, Klaus would've never went looking for another one; he would've never turned Jenna and John would never have killed her. So sure you do. Oh, and let's not forget I turned your wife into a vampire. You must _really _hate me for that one!"

"Okay, give me your glass. Neither one of us is drunk enough for this conversation."

Still weak, Damon swung his arm off of the boulder and brought the crystal glass up to his lips to finish the burning liquor in the cup. He walked over to the door and braced to put the glass on the opening, but instead, he had a better idea. His hand clenched around Alaric's throat as tight as possible for a vampire in his state.

Alaric choked as Damon begged, "Kill me. Please."

"Screw...you!"

Fighting the urges to give over to the lack of air, Alaric raised his unseen hand and injected a vervain dart right into Damon's arm. Damon grunted as he felt the vervain take over his system, weakening the already sick vampire. He dropped to the ground involuntarily, coughing up a storm. But in the middle of his coughs, Alaric heard him mutter, "Claire?"

"Claire's not here, Damon." It was the last thing Damon heard before his vision went spotty and a white light appeared, transforming the dark cell into, yet again, another memory.

_"Mr. Salvatore?" _

_Damon heard his name close behind him as he stood around in his room, staring at the regulated bags he was allowed to pack for service. He would have to carry them himself, of course, when the time came for him to deploy when the sun rose. He turned around to face one of the maids of the Salvatore household, hesitant upon entering his room. Damon nodded to her. _

_"Come in, Valentine. Are you here to say goodbye?" _

_"No, Sir. I have been asked to deliver a message." Damon cocked an eyebrow as Valentine shifted uncomfortably. "Miss, uh, Clarissa King has requested your presence in her family's guest house immediately." _

_Damon froze, and he completely understod then why Valentine was acting so strangely. Everyone in Mystic Falls knew that Clarissa and Damon were not on speaking terms to say the least, so it was odd that she was requesting his presence. Damon didn't really know how to respond to what she was telling him, so after a long moment or two, he gave a small, unsure nod and turned back to his things, still confounded._

_"T-Thank you, Valentine. You're dismissed."  
_

_"Sir?" Damon turned around to see Valentine, who smiled lightly at him. "Goodbye."  
_

_He gave her a small smile. "I'll be back before you know it." _

_She blushed, a typical reaction to his charm, and fled the room upon his dismissal. Damon turned back to his things and looked over them, carefully making sure that he had everything he needed in order. He had no doubt he would be back later on in the night, probably after Clarissa had made some huge fool of him and most likely kicked him around a few times for being so blunt earlier, but he knew he had to go. He couldn't refuse her request, no matter how much he wanted to. And besides, his packing was all done. All that was left was for him to get a good night's rest and move on towards the next adventure._

_So reluctantly, he left his family's home and in the dark corners of the night, passed the property of the King residence and walked out back to the guest house that rested by the lake. There was a lantern above the door, the light guiding him to his destination. Damon took out a deep breath and mentally prepared himself for whatever fight was about to come before he pushed open the door and walked inside. _

_He didn't really know what to expect. A lash somewhere that she would use to beat him with? No, of course not. If he were being truthful, he really didn't know what to expect out of the entire situation in general, but that didn't stop him from being completely shocked when he saw multiple candles around the room, giving him a very dim light to see Clarissa shaking out a match, dressed in nothing but her nightgown. Damon swallowed, confused, and watched as her eyes met his. He could see a hint of water in them, glassing over her entire eye and making it clear that there was something wrong. Damon opened his mouth when she neared closer to him, but she shook her head. _

_"Please don't speak," she begged, and in the dim light he could've sworn he saw a tear fall down her face. "This will all just...be easier if we don't speak." _

_"Clarissa..." he started, but she cut him off by balancing on her toes, pressing her lips to his to silence him. He didn't object, though he was confused out of his mind. But it was Clarissa_—_how could he say no to her with what she was doing? She kissed him softly, as if she were saying goodbye, and that's what he realized this was. A goodbye. Her own goodbye. Perhaps his enlistment would affect her more than he thought it would, after all. _

_So he didn't care what happened next. He let her kiss him and even kissed her back, taking what she was offering. His shirt ended up on the floor and her nightdress ended up with it as he carried them both to the small makeshift bed in the quiet, reserved King guesthouse. And for one night, he was able to love her as he always wanted. _

_So when the sun came above the horizon and dawned on the next day, Damon and Claire walked hand-in-hand out of the guesthouse, having gotten no sleep whatsoever. They were both silent, the only sound was of her hands rubbing together awkwardly. Suddenly, Damon spun around, cutting her path off so that she bumped right into him. Immediately, she stopped short and looked up, waiting for him to speak. Damon looked at her with confusion. _

_"What was this, Clarissa?" he asked, his eyes roaming her features. "Was it only a goodbye?" _

_She hesitated, and he could see the look of distress on her face. He watched carefully as she stammered, "I-It doesn't have to _only _be a good_—_" _

_It was all he needed. He leaned forward and kissed her lips tenderly, cutting her sentence off at what seemed like the end. She tensed for a moment but relaxed and let her lips melt into his before he broke away, his forehead leaning against hers when he breathed out, "Wait for me." _

_"Wait for you?" she repeated, breathless. He nodded against her, his hand on the back of her neck, securing her to him. He kissed her again, and this time, when he pulled away, she whispered, "All right. All right, I'll wait for you." _

_"Promise?" _

_"Promise." _

_Damon smiled, as did Claire, and then he let her go, walking backwards and away back to his own home, all the while keeping his eyes on her. And then, to the left of where Clarissa was standing, Claire came out and crossed her arms at him._

_"If you turn around, you'll never get me back," she warned. Damon understood what she meant, but he didn't think. All that he could do was let his feet guide him to turn the opposite direction, where the figures behind him vanished into thin air._

The lock on the door broke him out of his memory. People—humans—were standing at the door. They were uninvited guests unwelcome in his home. Damon realized in a split second that they had unlocked the door and someone was coming inside, so the second whoever the human was entered the threshold, he was out of his weak position on the floor and up at the side of the door, ready to strike. Liz Forbes was standing perpendicular to him, holding a gun full of wooden bullets in her hand waiting to strike. He scowled.

"Liz."

The Sheriff gasped and turned her gun to aim for him, but Damon grabbed her arm and forced it around so that she went flying right for the brick wall behind him, knocking her out cold—long enough for him to make an unsolicited escape from the Salvatore dungeon without any interruptions whatsoever.

* * *

Claire tapped her fingers on her thigh rapidly and almost angrily, causing her sister to reach over to her and squeeze her knee so tightly, Claire was forced to cease her incessant tapping long enough to pry Amelia's fingers off of her limb. Caroline was equally as impatient, suddenly whipping around to Jeremy and their new guest Bonnie, hissing, "All this waiting around is _ruining _Scarlett for me!"

"I hate this movie," Claire muttered under her breath as she heard Amelia's phone ring beside her. The blonde answered it promptly, feeling ashamed that it was on ringer in the middle of a movie. She could see those around her glare at her with judgements, but she tried to maintain as quiet as she could.

"Hey, Ric."

_"Tell me you're with Claire." _

Amelia looked at Claire, who was no doubt trying to listen in on their conversation as they spoke. So slowly, Amelia lifted herself from the picnic blanket and walked off to the side, whispering, "Yeah...uh, she's right here. What's wrong?"

_"No, just get her somewhere safe. Damon escaped...I think he's looking for her and the cops are after him. Listen, he's in bad shape, Amelia. Just get everyone to safety and I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm on my way."_

Alaric ended the phone call as Amelia turned around and witnessed as only 4 of her friends sat on the picnic blanket. Her eyes widened as Caroline and Elena both looked around to find what was wrong, and then realized what it was.

"Damn it," Amelia whispered as she noticed Claire's absence among them. Bonnie, Caroline, Elena, and Jeremy all stood up to crowd around her.

"What's going on?" Elena asked.

"It's Damon, isn't it?" Caroline added, obviously having eavesdropped on the conversation as well. Amelia sighed at them.

"Yeah, it's Damon. He's...sick and Sheriff Forbes is after him. Stefan told me not to let Claire out of my sight but—"

"Sick how?" Bonnie urged. Amelia stared at them all with a pitiful look.

"Werewolf bite," she said under her breath, causing everyone to come to a slow and painful stop as they realized what was going on. Sure, Damon wasn't the most likable guy, but no one actually wanted him to die—especially not by a werewolf bite. Elena shook her head.

"Why didn't Stefan want Claire to see him?"

Amelia shrugged, unaware, but then Bonnie swallowed thickly and put the pieces together. "He told her that he was going to see Klaus to get the cure, but she wanted to go with him, didn't she? Klaus thinks she's dead, there's no way he would've let her."

The older blonde blinked, alarmed. "You're telling me that my sister is going to see _Klaus_?"

"We've got to find her," Elena pressed, ignoring everyone else's comments as she turned around and sprinted in the other direction. Caroline and Amelia called out her name to get her back, but there were several shushes from the crowd around them. The vampires ignored it as Caroline looked at the rest of her friends and shook her head.

"Don't worry, I've got it," she said before taking off in Elena's footsteps. Amelia sighed.

"God, this is just one big mess."

"Bonnie, let go," Jeremy demanded, and Amelia looked to her side to suddenly find Jeremy and Bonnie in the midst of a tiff. The young witch frowned at him.

"If Damon is off the rails, there's nothing you can do to stop him. Let us take care of it."

"You keep doing this! You left me behind before, and guess what? Jenna still died. Now I'm going to find my sister and you go head and you try to stop me."

He jerked his arm out of her grasp and walked off angrily, leaving Bonnie and Amelia the only ones left to join the search team.

* * *

Damon stumbled through the town square, moaning and groaning from the pain he felt buried in his stomach, bumping into people he thought he recognized from his human age. He wasn't sure whether or not he was living in reality or his memory—however, the fact that he was stumbling in the middle of town square's 1800s movie event didn't help much. He coughed and came to a slow in front of the commemorating statue that was in the center of Mystic Square, only to look up and find a period-looking Clarissa King standing in the dress she wore when he returned from the war.

"Clarissa?" he whispered, bewildered, but when she opened her mouth to say something, a large, male voice replaced her presence.

"Damon!" Clarissa faded and Jeremy walked right in front of the sick, sweating vampire, waiting for him to respond. Damon just sighed and looked at the young teenager with wild eyes.

"Where's Claire? I need to see Claire now."

Jeremy, seeing his disoriented presence, stammered, "H-Hey, let's get you out of here first, all right?"

And though Damon didn't want to go with him, he had no choice. He faltered over, enlisting Jeremy to catch him and help him walk as he coughed his way to the Grill.

Meanwhile, Claire shoved her way through the crowd of period-dressers immediately, determined to get to Amelia's car, which was parked at the Grill. She didn't know what she'd do when she got to it, but she figured hot-wiring couldn't be that hard. She had to get to Alaric's apartment—to find Stefan and Klaus before it was too late. She had to get Damon the cure; she wouldn't lose him.

But just as Claire stormed up to her sister's white SUV, she watched as Sheriff Forbes, with her weapon most likely packed with wooden bullets, entered the Grill and told her deputies to secure the perimeter of the square. In panic, Claire stuck herself to the side of Amelia's vehicle and squatted on the ground, hopeful that the Sheriff wouldn't see her. Caroline had told her that the Sheriff knew Caroline was a vampire, and maybe that meant she knew about Claire and Damon as well if what Alaric had said to Amelia was true. Regardless, she didn't want to take her chances. _I already died once this week, _she thought bitterly.

"Yes, Ma'am," she heard one of the deputies agree and start towards her direction. She could hear the footsteps of the cop nearing towards her, but she hoped he didn't see her in his sight and kept moving. But of course, the second he walked around Amelia's SUV, out of the corner of his eye, he caught Claire's presence and widened his eyes. However, the poor human was too slow for her, and Claire managed to snatch his gun from him and place a hand over his mouth before he screamed, dragging him with her at the side of the car. He kicked and tried to scream, but she hushed him and kept a firm grip on his mouth so he couldn't breath. A few minutes went by and finally, the deputy stopped kicking and she realized he was unconscious—long enough for her to be safe without worrying. She left the deputy lying on the ground and slid up the side of the vehicle to the driver door of Amelia's car, only to find it locked.

"Damn my responsible sister," Claire hissed before slumping back down against the side of the vehicle, ignoring the deputy's unconscious body. It was then, as she felt defeated, that she heard a single gunshot come within the Grill. The sound of the movie playing in the square masked it, but for a vampire, it was unmistakeable. As her panic started to increase, she felt a rush of air, and only a few yards in front of her, she spotted a black figure walking through the grass—stumbling, coughing, the whole nine yards. _Damon, _she realized and lifted herself from the ground to follow him. She took off in a sprint after he fled, most likely to find safe haven to protect himself against Sheriff Forbes. She lost him when he disappeared behind the projector screen, the sound of the audio from _Gone With the Wind _blasting in her already sensitive ears. She looked around, bewildered, knowing that his trail stopped at the exact spot she was standing in.

"Claire."

Claire whipped around to find Damon standing behind her, a pitiful sight to look at. His eyes were branded with a ring of red, his skin was covered in pale, cold sweat, and he looked as disoriented as she thought he would. Claire let out a breath of relief, but as words came out of her mouth, all Damon could see was the past.

_"Damon," she answered the door icily, staring at him with obvious discomfort. "What are you doing here?" _

_"What am I doing here?" Damon repeated, incredulous. He was angry beyond a second thought. "You promised, Clarissa. You promised me."_

Claire stared at Damon in front of her, listening to him say words that she didn't understand. She shook her head. "Damon—"

_"I don't know what you're talking about," Clarissa stated briskly. Damon stepped closer to her at the threshold of the King entrance. _

_"You promised me you'd wait. And then you accept a proposal from...from Christopher Fell?" _

_He watched her hesitate, notice the burning anger in his eyes, and at last, she told the truth. "Damon, you've been away for two years. We_—_I thought you were dead. By the time your brother informed me that you were returning home on leave, my parents had already accepted my engagement to Christopher_—"

_"Then break the engagement, Clarissa. Break it," he begged. She stared at him, confused. _

_"Why does it matter to you? Miss Pierce keeps you company enough, I've heard_—"

_"This isn't about Katherine!" Damon shouted at her, tears in his eyes. Clarissa flinched, and he realized that he'd scared her. He took a step back and just hissed, "Tell me why. Just tell me why you didn't wait, Clarissa."_

Damon stared at Claire, as if waiting for an answer from her lips. Claire watched him and tried not to break down for what felt like the millionth time in the last few days. He was going to die, she realized, and she didn't want to accept it. She had to get him out of there before she could find Klaus and get the cure. But by the time she did that, it would be too late.

And she knew what he was talking about. She knew what he was asking. He was asking the question that he'd never gotten an answer for. One that she refused to give him because it was her deepest, darkest secret that she hadn't shared with anyone—not even Stefan.

"Damon..." she whispered, the word hurting her throat to speak.

_"I'm sorry, Damon," he heard as Clarissa backed away from the threshold and attempted to close the door on him. But before she could, Damon stopped the door from closing and gripped her arms tightly. _

As Claire moved forward to help Damon away, he suddenly had them pinned against one of the decorative lamp-posts. Claire knew she could shove him off, but he looked so pitiful, it was heartbreaking. What he whispered was even worse.

"I thought you loved me."

_"I thought you loved me," Damon said to her quietly. Clarissa turned her cheek from him, fighting back the tears in her eyes. _

_"You thought wrong." _

"I know." Claire swallowed as she looked into his eyes and nodded. "I know you thought I loved you. I know that. But now's not the time, Damon. Please. I have to get you home."

She slightly pushed him away, but it didn't take much strength on her part. In his mind, Clarissa shoved him off and closed the door on his face, snapping him back out to reality. When Damon was finally back with the real Claire, he looked into her crystal-clear eyes and shook his head.

"I don't understand."

"I know."

"I should've stayed with you." Suddenly, he dropped to the ground on his knees, his head buried in her stomach. Claire leaned against the lamp post with her head tilted back as a tear drifted down her face. She could still hear him as he whispered quietly, "But why didn't you wait for me? Why didn't you...wait for me?"

"Oh, Damon..." she reached down to hold him at arm's length as she sank down to his level and wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, allowing him to bury his head in her shoulder. She held onto him tightly, realizing the very possibility that he might very well die. If there was a time for the secret to come out, it was then—right in that moment. So, as she held back the tears that threatened at her eyes, she choked out, "I didn't wait for you because...because I lost our child. And it was too hard to even...to even _think _about you, let alone wait for you."

Damon's eyes widened as he heard what escaped her mouth and hoped that it was some form of a hallucination. But when he pulled away from her embrace and she let him, he observed her face after her confession and knew it was nothing but the truth. His words failed him.

"You were..." he trailed off, and she nodded. He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, they were interrupted.

"Claire!" shouted Elena as she and Amelia came rushing up to Claire's side. Damon didn't take his eyes off of the blonde in front of him, but she tore her gaze from his to look up at her sister and the human brunette. Elena looked over at Damon. "Oh, God...is he...?"

Claire wiped her eyes and lifted Damon from the ground, handing him over to Elena. "Here. You both need to take him. I've got to find a way to stop this."

"Claire, you can't!" Amelia protested, shaking her head. "If Klaus finds out—"

"Amelia, don't do this to me!" Claire snapped, causing her sister to come to a complete stop. Amelia could see the look of dead seriousness in Claire's eyes, and she knew that if she didn't hand her sister the keys to her car, she would just find an alternative. There was no other way around it. "He. Cannot. Die. Today."

The younger sibling just sighed and realized that there was nothing more she could do. She reached into her pocket and produced the keys to her car, and Claire took them quickly. She turned around to leave, but before she did, she heard Damon call for her, weakly. He stumbled out of Elena's grasp and walked over to her, falling into her arms. Claire held onto him tightly, keeping him upright, as he whispered to her.

"I love you. You should know that...i-in case—"

She reached forward and pressed her lips to his softly, cutting him off mid-sentence. It was a soft kiss; their last one. She pulled away and leaned against his forehead for a moment, sniffing before returning quietly, "I know."

Claire forced herself away from Damon and looked over his shoulder at her sister and Elena, who both stepped forward ready to catch Damon as Claire flashed away from their sight.

* * *

When Claire reached Alaric's apartment, she feared it was too late. There was a ticking clock above her head with a time that she couldn't see. Damon didn't have more than a few hours left and Klaus...well, if Klaus had any sense at all, he'd be halfway around the world. But then again, Klaus was an all-powerful vampire/werewolf since Elijah backed out on their deal, which made it so that he didn't have to have any sense. No one could kill him, no one could stand against him.

Nevertheless, she was relieved when she found the door of Alaric's apartment and pushed it open. But the sight before her was so unexpected, it rocked her stomach full of horror, which was hard to do. Klaus turned around to watch as Claire pushed open the door to the apartment and stepped inside, her face falling at the sight of multiple drained blood bags trailing a line all the way to Stefan's lips, which were coated in rich, human blood. She watched as he realized it was her who entered and set down the half-empty blood bag that he was ravenously devouring.

"No..." Stefan whispered as he realized what she had done. Klaus looked back at her, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, well. Look who rose from the ashes." He turned at her and watched as she tore her eyes from the gruesome sight and focused her stern gaze on him. "You must have realized what a foolish decision you've made revealing yourself to me, haven't you?"

"Cut the bullshit, Klaus." He dropped his small smile and watched her as she inched towards him. "You want to kill me? Go ahead. But we both know you won't."

He scoffed. "And why's that?"

She looked back at Stefan, who was on the floor writhing as he itched for the blood bag in front of him. _What has Klaus done? _she whispered in her head, but didn't say anything aloud.

Instead, she turned back to Klaus and quoted, "'Trust me when I say this...you _will _be okay'? Ring a bell?" Klaus dropped his gaze to the floor and smiled wider as she looked at him with sickened eyes. "The spell that Christopher used to bring me back...he got it from you, didn't he?"

Klaus shrugged. "Technically, he got it from a witch friend of mine in Berlin, but that's besides the point."

"Why?"

"It'd be a shame to see such a powerful vampire go to waste, love." He stepped closer and cocked his head. "You see, you had the right idea trying to escape during the ritual. In fact, I was quite impressed with your strength. However...if you let me teach you...oh, Clarissa, think of the possibilities."

"I don't have to think of them." She crossed her arms. "I'm here to make you a deal. Stefan says you know how to save Damon."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, we've been through this before. To save us all a bit of time, I'll just tell you. My blood is the cure, Clarissa. Stefan has already agreed to come with me in order to save his brother's life. However—"

"No!" Stefan shouted from behind him, sitting straighter on his knees from the blood-soaked floor. He growled, "This deal is between you and me, Klaus. Leave her out of it."

"I decide the terms of our agreement, Stefan," Klaus snapped as he looked back at Claire and shrugged. "What do you say, love? What would you do to save your precious Salvatore?"

"Let Stefan go and I'll do whatever you want."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible." Klaus turned from her and walked over to the counter in Alaric's kitchen, grabbing a small red bottle of what she could only assume contained his blood. He waved it for her to see. "You want this to be sent to Stefan's brother? Join me. Let me teach you what I have to offer. Or...well, by the time you get back to the Salvatore boarding house, he'll be dead and you'll only have yourself to blame. Clock's ticking."

"Claire," Stefan begged from the floor. She looked over at him to see his weary eyes, telling her not to take the deal. Hero Stefan couldn't take seeing Claire being put in the middle of all of it, but she was already in it. If she left, Klaus would never give Damon the blood. The only option was staring her right in the face, and no matter what Stefan pleaded, she knew there was only one way.

"Fine." She nodded hesitantly. Klaus smiled and reached beside him to pour a glass of blood before he extended it to her.

"Drink on it, then."

Claire didn't have a problem with blood, but that didn't mean she didn't like to drink it. Over the years, she curved herself to a diet, to only drink off of blood bags as necessary. But Klaus? She could already tell the blood of the innocent would be on her hands and it sickened her, but it was the only way. She walked over, her chin tall, and grabbed the glass from his hand. She downed the blood in the cup without wasting a second and turned back to Klaus, who just grinned in approval. He turned to his other side to see Katherine who was sitting in the corner of the room, silent.

"Sweetheart," he started as he walked over to her with the red bottle of blood in his hand. He lifted Katherine from her seat with his hand wrapped around her throat and she lifted herself to meet his compulsory gaze. "Take this over to Damon and come right back."

"You want me to leave?"

"No!" Stefan and Claire shouted.

"Yes. And if I were you, I would—" she was gone before he could say the final word, "—hurry."

"You bastard!" Claire yelled as Katherine fled with the cure in her hands. Klaus sat down on the chair Katherine had been sitting in with a sadistic smile. "You knew! All this time, you knew!"

"She'll never take it to him," Stefan growled. Klaus shrugged at them as Stefan doubled over in defeat. "She'll never take it to him."

* * *

"This is even more pitiful than I thought," Damon murmured to Amelia as she sat by his side and dabbed a cold compress to his head. She tried to give him a smile.

"It's not...completely pitiful."

"There's still hope," added Elena, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, watching as Damon drifted away. She didn't want to see him die and hoped that Claire and Stefan had found a way to get the cure from Klaus. Damon sighed.

"I've made a lot of choices that have gotten me here. I deserve this. I deserve to die."

"Damon Salvatore!" Amelia scolded, lightly tapping him on the face. "What would make you think that? You absolutely do not deserve to die!"

"I do, Amelia. I deserve it. Some of the choices I made...could've been prevented." He swallowed, a look of pain crossing his face as he whispered, "If I had made better choices, I wouldn't be here right now. I'd be with her."

"With..." Elena trailed off, about to ask who he was talking about, but before she did, she realized quickly what he meant. Elena shifted, moving up the bed so that she was at Damon's side. "Damon, you can't blame yourself for history."

"But it's true," he whispered, closing his eyes. "If I'd fought harder, if I'd put her before my pride...if I stayed, she would've...we would've..." Amelia and Elena shared a glance as they could feel Damon slipping away from them, second after second. Damon finished quietly, "Our lives would've been simple."

"Maybe they would've." Elena smiled and she looked over at Amelia, who nodded as she understood what Elena wanted to do. She reached out and touched Damon's face, where realistic, perfect-world images flashed over his mind as Elena listed them for him. "You would've gotten married, had kids, laughed together, fought together...loved each other. You would've watched your kids grow and listen to your parents tell you what to do and what not to do. Then, when they were all grown up and out of the house and you and Claire were old and grey, you would've realized what a perfect life you had and how it all worked out the way it was supposed to be."

Damon watched as the situations crossed his mind, as he watched Claire's smile and her laughter burned into his memory. He watched them kiss, watched them fight, and watched her cry. He watched everything; he watched his perfect life.

"The way it was supposed to be," Damon replied, his voice barely audible. Amelia let her hand drift away from his face, stopping the sequence in his head so that she could wipe the tears away from her eyes. Slowly, they watched his eyes open and he whispered to them, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Elena said softly.

"Well, it's me you should be thanking." Elena and Amelia both looked up to find Katherine standing at the threshold of Damon's bedroom, cocking an eyebrow as she raised a bottle in her hand. "I mean, I'm the one who brought the cure." She sauntered forward as Elena slowly got up from the bed, eyeing Katherine with suspicious eyes. "I thought you were dead."

"I was," Elena returned.

"You got free," Damon noticed as Katherine pushed past Amelia and leaned towards Damon to put the cure to his lips.

"Yep. Finally."

"And you still came here?"

Her hand came up to cup his face as she nodded. "I owed you one."

"Where's my sister?" Amelia demanded as Katherine straightened to leave. "And...and Stefan? Where are they? Why'd he send you?"

"Slow down, there speed racer." Katherine rolled her eyes. "One question at a time."

"Where's Stefan?" Elena asked from behind Amelia, crossing her arms and anticipating the answer as soon as possible. Katherine looked behind the blonde and sighed at her doppelgänger.

"He's paying for this." She held up the bottle in her hand. "Stefan gave himself over to Klaus and Claire managed to get caught up in it. I wouldn't be expecting them anytime soon."

"Wait, what?" Damon lifted himself up from the bed, immediately feeling better. Katherine looked over at him—she should've guessed. "What are you talking about? Where is Claire?"

"I told you, Damon, don't be expecting her anytime soon." Katherine shrugged. "She gave up everything to save you...including _you_. How's that for your tragic love story, huh? And I didn't even have to be the one to drive her off."

With an arrogant smile, Katherine turned on her heel and started to walk out, but Amelia stepped forward. "Katherine—"

She spun around and tossed the bottle of Klaus's blood at her with a wider grin. "Good luck."

* * *

**Damon's okay. Where R U? **

Claire let out a relieved sigh and looked up at Stefan, who felt the same way as they both read the words on the screen of his cell phone. Before they could say anything, however, Klaus walked up to them in the middle of the abandoned warehouse they were starting their decade-long adventure.

"So?" he asked, causing them both to look up at him. "Did Katerina make it in time?"

"You won't be seeing her again, you know," Stefan advised.

"Because she's on vervain? I've been around a long time, Stefan, I rarely get played for a fool. Besides, she won't get far. You'll help me see to that." He smiled. Stefan stepped forward, leaving Claire to watch the situation that transpired between him and Klaus.

"What is it you really want from me?"

Klaus hesitated, slightly impressed with Stefan's deduction skills. "All will be explained in time. Once we leave this tragic little town."

"Then are we done here? Can we go?"

"Not quite. You see, I have a gift for you and Clarissa." He glanced at Clarissa, who stiffened, and then turned around with his arm extended out. "Come here, sweetheart. Don't be afraid." A teenage girl emerged from the shadows and was led right into Klaus's arm, where he swept the hair off her neck and looked at the two vampires before him. "See, I wanna make sure you two honor our deal. That you'll be of use to me." He barred his fangs and slowly bit the girl's neck, causing the teenager to scream aloud. Klaus tore his fangs away from the girl's neck after a moment, blood dripping down the side of his mouth and his eyes as horrid as a vampire's but glowing like a wolf's. "I could've compelled her to behave, but a real Ripper enjoys the hunt." He looked behind Stefan to Claire. "And a powerful vampire like yourself has no room for moral qualities."

The girl took off as Klaus let her go, and Stefan and Claire both realized what Klaus wanted them to do. In the blink of an eye, both Stefan and Claire were gone, causing Klaus to grin and slowly take off after them. The bitten teenager had stopped short when Stefan was standing in front of her, slowly watching her breathe. Claire stood behind the teenager, sick with disgust, but she realized there was nothing she could do about it. It was over. Klaus won.

Claire and Stefan shared a glance—only one glance—before the two of them flashed over and tore into the girl's neck, one vampire on each side, draining twice as fast. Her blood supply was out quicker than they would've liked, and Claire backed up when Stefan dropped the girl's corpse to the ground. Stefan lifted his head to Klaus and Claire looked over her shoulder, the hybrid observing his two vampires as they both relished in the blood on their faces. He nodded.

"Now we can go."

* * *

**In honor of a long-standing tradition of me being sick and managing to get at least one chapter of a fanfic out, here's the Season 2 finale! If any of you read this story and my other ones and are wondering why I chose to update this story, it's because I want to be over with Season 2 so I can move along to Season 3 ASAP. I'm gonna try for some other stories today but I'm so tired I just don't know. **

**Anyways, thanks for reading! It's a season finale which means that there will probably be at least a week's break between 2x22 and 3x01 but I can tell you right now it'll probably be more than a week until my next update but we'll see how it goes. **

**Please review!**

* * *

**RHatch89: **Thanks! :)

**HPuni101: **Thanks! Yeah Amelia's starting to annoy me so hopefully I can find some way to give her a real storyline so she's not just in the background for the next season. We'll see how it goes. Here's the update! Thanks for the review!

**grapejuice101: **I know it was pretty sad :( This chapter made me need a lot of tissues and not just because I'm sick lol. Here's the update!

**HALEBTRASH: **Thanks!

**NicoleR85: **Thank you! Here's the update.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **I know :( It was a sad chapter. Thanks for reviewing!

**Tvd2014: **I'm glad you liked it! Yeah John killing Jenna was pretty intense but it had to be done. Originally I was just gonna let Jenna decide not to become a vampire but John still needed to leave because no one wants him around and I figured well, he'd probably do that anyway so whatever. I mean, Christopher and Elena is a possibility but we'll see what happens down the road. He won't be in Season 3, I'll tell you that right now. The earliest he will be coming back is Season 4. Hope you enjoyed the flashbacks in this chapter! Thanks for the review!


	37. The Birthday

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Birthday**

_Tennessee_

On one of the hottest nights of the Southern summer in Tennesse in the middle of nowhere underneath a starry sky chirping with crickets hiding in the ground, a girl stepped out of her house into the humid air.

"Rudy!" she yelled while stepping out onto the porch and putting her fingers to her lips, successfully blowing air in a sharp, hard whistle. The girl continued down the porch steps and onto the pathway to the house, partially annoyed. "Rudy! Come on. It's too hot to make me come looking for you."

The girl bent down and picked up a toy on the front lawn to attract her dog, but as she stood straight and braced to go on a search in the heat of the night, she gasped when she saw a young blonde with piercing blue eyes coming to a slow in front of her, jabbing at her cell phone angrily. Naturally, the girl was suspicious, being as it was the dead of night and hardly anyone came up to her door at any given time. The strange woman before her humanly jolted back with a gasp of her own and let out a small, relieved laugh.

"I-I'm so sorry. Totally didn't mean to scare you."

"Can I help you?"

The blonde gave an exasperated sigh. "Look, I don't normally do this, but I am having the shittiest day ever. I got into a fight with my boyfriend this morning, my shitty car ran out of gas a few miles back, and on top of all that, in the middle of trying to call Triple A, my phone up and died on me. My feet hurt like hell and your house is the only one I've seen in miles...so I was just wondering if I could use your phone to call a tow." The girl looked at the woman before her with suspicious eyes, clearly alerting the stranger. The woman with the blue eyes shook her head and laughed. "I know this is crazy and...and, well, you probably think I'm a serial killer by now but really. I _just_ need to use your phone to call a tow."

The girl, realizing the situation, eventually nodded and sighed. "Sure."

"Great! So I can come in? I could really use a place to sit—"

"No." The girl whipped around and looked at the blonde with a very unapologetic smile. The blonde woman dropped her own gradually, realizing the girl's rudeness. "Sorry. I'll get the phone and I'll bring it out to you."

"But it'd just be for a minute."

"Look, you're lucky I'm even letting you use the phone at all—"

All of a sudden, behind the young girl refusing to let the blonde into the house, a man popped up behind her from seemingly out of nowhere. The blonde woman, clearly in kahoots with him, let out a frustrated sigh and turned away, annoyed, as the British male behind the young girl growled, "I thought you country folk were supposed to be more trusting."

The girl whipped around and gasped, only to be taken violently by the throat as the vampire behind her took her by the throat and stepped closer, staring into the young girl's frightened eyes. "You were being quite rude to my friend here. Now show us a little southern hospitality, sweet pea. Invite us inside."

The vampire released the young human and let her take a moment to adjust to the compulsion he had just implemented on her. While the human regained her strength and let herself breathe, the blonde woman in front of her just looked at the other vampire behind the human with annoyed eyes.

"Would it kill you to be a little more patient, Klaus?"

He stared back at her with a frown. "Patience is for the weak, Clarissa. Rule number five."

Claire rolled her eyes. Klaus's stupid rules, as she named them, were archaic and morally questionable as ever. She hated them, but she had no choice but to abide by them. It was unfair, though, because Stefan didn't get those rules. Stefan could do whatever he wanted. Maybe that was because Stefan wasn't Klaus's new protégé, he was just Klaus's lapdog. She had to admit, it kind of sucked for Stefan too, but at least Klaus didn't look at Stefan like he looked at Claire. There wasn't a word to describe how Klaus looked at Claire, it changed every day. Sometimes it was like he was trying to piece her together, the other days he just looked at her with anger, others it was pure sarcasm, and then there were times where he looked at her like she was his next conquer, which was the look that made her most annoyed. Stefan didn't get those looks. _Damn Stefan. _

But she didn't say anything else, knowing that it would get her nowhere, and just followed Klaus into the house after the girl let them inside. Holding the frightened girl by the back of her neck, Klaus left Claire at the door of the house and walked into the kitchen with the young girl at his side. Inside the kitchen area, a nonchalant African-American woman was standing over the stove frying her dinner.

"I bet you a hundred dollars that dog ran off to a house with air conditioning," she commented jokingly before turning around to look at her friend, who she soon realized was not alone. The second woman froze. "What's going on?"

"Please don't be alarmed," Klaus told her calmly. "I'm told Ray Sutton lives here."

The second woman shrugged. "He's almost never here. He's on the road mostly."

"But I expect he makes it home..._once a month_." Klaus stepped forward with the young girl still in his grasp, and when neither one of the women answered him, he let a small smile across his face. "That's what I thought. Where is he now? If I have to _make _you tell me, it's going to be infinitely more painful for you."

The second woman hesitated, but Klaus looked at her with cautious eyes telling her not to run. But of course, the woman did the opposite of what he wanted and she took off in a sprint, heading for the main door at the front of the house. She stopped short in the hallway and screamed as Claire kicked the screen door open to reveal Stefan, who waited on the other side of the threshold to be invited inside.

"I love it when they run!" Klaus announced from behind her, a smile contagious across his lips. The African-American woman turned to him and her friend and now had tears in her eyes realizing that they'd backed them into a corner.

"He's in Tully!" the woman confessed. "It's near the border. A-A bar called Southern Comfort. It's off Highway 41."

"Thank you, my love. Now..." He turned to the girl in his arms and swept a piece of hair out of her face, which was stained in tears. "May my friend come in your home?"

The girl had no option but to choke out, "Y-Yes."

Stefan walked through the threshold and closed the door behind him, his eyes focused on Klaus. Claire straightened and watched as Klaus pushed forward the girl in his arms and, in a flat tone, ordered, "Kill this one quickly." His eyes flickered to the noncompliant woman. "Make that one suffer. I'll be in the car."

Klaus walked past Stefan and gave a look at Clarissa. _It's your job to watch, _she thought, reiterating everything he'd told her for the last two months they'd been on the road. She turned her head slightly as he brushed past, pausing briefly at her side as if to taunt her for a moment by purposely making contact with her, and then he walked out into the summer heat waiting for the screams to come. The screen door shut, and the girl in front of Stefan, tears streaked down her cheeks, begged for her life. But it didn't matter. Stefan was a slave to Klaus; they both were. The difference was, Stefan was the fixer. Claire was the observer. She was supposed to learn about what a real vampire was, but the sight of her best friend tearing into someone's flesh sickened her. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He wasn't supposed to turn into a Ripper again.

But nevertheless, Stefan's fangs barred and, as Klaus walked further and further away from the house, the screams rang in his ears like the sound of sweet music.

* * *

_"Caroline called this morning," _Elena told Amelia in the recieved of her smartphone as the vampire threw her keys onto the table at the entrance of the Salvatore foyer and stepped inside the house. _"She said her mom found another lead. An animal attack in Memphis. I talked to Sheriff Forbes and she said that she thinks the violence matches Klaus's victims. I'll text you the location." _

Amelia nodded. "Okay. Okay, yeah, I'll look into it and fill you in later. Are you still going to the party tonight or are you bailing?"

_"Why does everyone keep saying that?" _Elena sighed. _"No, I'm not bailing. Well...I haven't made up my mind yet. Probably not. Just...let me know what happens with that lead, okay?"_

"Yes, Elena, I will let you know. Relax. Take a load off. I'll see you tonight."

_"See you tonight." _

As Amelia hung up the phone, meanwhile—meaning upstairs in Damon's bedroom—Andie Starr was putting on her makeup at the bathroom sink while Damon sat in his bathtub soaking in warm water and an endless supply of bubbles. Seeing his empty champagne glass, he reached over and grabbed the champagne bottle, feeling it dangerously low on supply. Of course, when he poured the contents of the bottle into the glass, there was less than a quarter of champagne left for him to drink. Damon groaned.

"We are out of champagne," he commented.

"Huh. No, _you _are out of champagne 'cause _I _don't drink in the morning," Andie replied curtly.

"Well, would you be a dear and—"

"I think you can probably get it yourself. I'm not your slave," she cut him off. Damon laughed to himself. _What an idiot, _he thought. She was exactly that, and it was ironic that she actually thought that she was with him by free will. Regardless, Damon found it worthless to make her do something so trivial, so after rolling his eyes at his human slave, he lifted himself out of the water and, soap suds and all, walked straight out of the tub and into the hallway, not even bothering with a towel or anything to cover his indecency. Andie tried to bite back a smile. "I mean, you're dripping..."

"Mmhmm," Damon muttered carelessly and continued downstairs. Amelia stood in the parlor and hung up her phone, slipping it into her back pocket. Damon watched as she turned around sensing his presence and he smiled at her. "Mornin' Blondie."

Amelia's eyes widened, but she didn't turn away. Instead, she took a moment to collect herself before clearing her throat and giving him a slow nod while commenting, "So...now I know why my sister was so interested in you, I guess."

Damon grinned. "Secret's out."

She rolled her eyes and reached behind her to grab a blanket for him to cover himself with. She threw it at him and Damon took it with a teasing smile and wrapped it around his waist as she joked, "Do you enjoy ruining my childhood? You're practically my brother, Damon. I really didn't want to see that."

"Honestly, yes. It's the highlight of my day, Amelia, ruining your seemingly innocent appearance." Damon scoffed. "If we were really siblings, I wouldn't _need _pants on when you're around. And you should really learn to knock. What if I was..._indecent?" _

Amelia frowned. "We're vampires, idiot. You heard me."

Damon shrugged. "Whatever. So what do you want now?"

"Elena said Sheriff Forbes gave us another location to check. Memphis."

"Another dead end, you mean?"

"Always so optimistic, Damon."

He laughed. "Oh, sorry! What did you tell me that you wanted me to say? Um...'You're right, oh wise Amelia. This _could _be the one!' Yep. After almost two months, this could be the clue that tells us Stefan and Claire are alive and well and living in graceland."

The blonde scowled at him. "If you're going to be a downer, I'll just go by myself."

Amelia moved to walk away, giving him a pointed stare before moving for the door, but before she could get even two steps towards it, Damon flashed in front of her and grabbed her phone to forward him the newspaper article. With a sigh, he grumbled, "You're on Elena duty, remember? You need to stay here and make sure that girl doesn't go off running into the wild tracking Klaus and exposing the fact that, even though she's supposed to be dead, she's not..._actually _dead. I'll go."

"Good. We haven't had a new lead in a while and I think that—"

"That this could be the one?" Damon filled in with a mutter. She crossed her arms and immediately, he sighed. "Whatever, whatever. Okay. I'll go check it out and I'll text you if I find something. Now go back to your own house."

"But—" Before Amelia could even say a word, Damon had already headed upstairs, still dripping wet from his bath. He walked up into his bedroom, where Andie was still in the room getting ready for work. Almost immediately, he turned the corner and walked over to the closet, where he opened it to reveal the massive map on the back of the closet door with newspaper clippings and thumbtacks pinned to the board, tracking Klaus's movements.

"They moved on to Tennessee," Damon announced to Andie as he placed a pin in Memphis on the map. Andie walked over to him.

"Huh. That Florida victim you had me look into had family in Tennessee."

"Which one? The Pensacola guy?"

"Uh huh."

"You up for a road trip?"

"Ha. No can do. I have got to work, but I can see if I can get you an address." Damon nodded and hummed in agreement, turning to look back at Andie as she awaited her early morning goodbye kiss. Compliant, Damon leaned forward to give her a peck on the lips, and his human uttered a moan of agreement as she backed out of the bedroom, calling, "I'll see you at the party."

"Get me that address!" Damon demanded as she walked out and he turned back to his study of Claire and Stefan's movements.

* * *

Country music played softly over the speakers of the southern-style bar. Ray Sutton walked into the bar he visited often, greeting those he knew by name as he walked inside for his typical, afternoon drink.

"Hey, Red. Can I get a beer?" he asked the bartender. With a nod, the bartender began to retrieve his drink, and as he did so, Ray leaned over the counter to wait. While he waited, he suddenly noticed someone come up right beside him, turning to speak.

"Ray?" Klaus asked, though he already knew the answer. "Ray Sutton?"

Ray hesitated as Red handed him the beer from behind the bar. "Who wants to know?"

Klaus ignored the question. "I've been looking everywhere for you! We started in Florida, Pensacola. I met a young chap there who you worked with before you moved to Memphis. Now, he directed me to two _lovely_ young women, and they led me here...to you."

_This guy is trouble, _thought Ray, and he knew he had to get out of the bar as fast as possible. It was as vampire, he assumed, just by the looks of the man questioning him. Leaving the beer untouched, Ray turned and moved towards the door.

"I think I'll be going."

"Not so fast, mate. You only just got here." Klaus lifted himself from a bar stool and pushed Ray back to look into his eyes. "Now, your type are very hard to come by."

Definitely a vampire. Ray turned to rush out of the other exit at the back of the bar, attempting to run, but before he could, there was another vampire that stopped him just from doing so. Stefan pushed Ray back against the bar counter, whispering the threat, "Yeah, I wouldn't do that."

"Vampires," Ray muttered.

"You're swifty, swift, Ray." Klaus smiled. "Yes, my friend here is a vampire. You see that gorgeous young woman over there standing by the billiard table?" Ray looked over in the direction the vampire pointed to, only to find a young blonde sink the game-winning ball into the top right corner pocket. She straightened and turned to Ray, giving him a small wave to let him know she was listening. Klaus leaned closer to the man next to him and continued, "She's also a vampire. And, she's compelled everyone in the bar, so don't look to them for any help. I, however, I'm something else. A different kind of monster. I've got some vampire...I've got some wolf—"

Ray's eyes widened. "You what—?"

"A hybrid, Ray. I'm both. You see, I want to create more of me. Now, you being the first werewolf I've come across in many a moon—pun intended, Ray—I need you to...direct me to your pack." The werewolf stiffened, immediately freezing. "So...where can I find them, Ray?"

The disheveled man shook his head. "You can't compel me. It won't work."

Stefan and Klaus shared a look. Obviously, the wolf wasn't going to comply with their demands, which meant that extraordinary measures would have to be taken. Stefan shook his head with a bit of shame, cleared his throat, and turned to the bartender behind the counter and ordered a drink.

"I need a scotch on the rocks, please." He looked over at Ray. "Tell you what, Ray. We're going to play a little drinking game. Something I like to call truth...or wolfsbane." Stefan poured a bit of wolfsbane into his hand, an herb extremely harmful to werewolves, and held it up for Ray to see and cower at. From the other side of him, Klaus laughed.

"Oh, this is going to be fun, Ray."

* * *

"It's like Damon doesn't even want to find her!" Amelia vented to Caroline and Tyler as she helped them set up at the Salvatore house for Elena's birthday party later on in the evening. The big 18 meant that Caroline would not stop until everyone in Mystic Falls wished Elena a happy birthday at some point during the party. Caroline handed the napkins that she set on the dining table. "I mean, how ridiculous is that?!"

"What if he doesn't?" Tyler retorted. Caroline spun around disapprovingly.

"Tyler!"

"What? I mean, Claire was kinda screwing with his head. First she loves him, then she hates him, then she starts sleeping with him, then she's married, then she's not married, then she starts sleeping with him again..."

Amelia rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, that's typical Damon and Claire stuff. They wouldn't be 'Damon and Claire' if they didn't love and hate each other every other week. Besides, she left Mystic Falls with Stefan to save him. Of course he wants to find her!"

The wolf turned with a pointed stare. "Yeah, but she basically lied to him for...like, as long as she's known him, about their unborn child."

Caroline widened her eyes and spun around again, shouting, "Tyler!" He shrugged at her and Amelia laughed, watching as Caroline spun back around slowly to Amelia and watched the blonde's 'explain' face take over her expression. The young vampire sighed. "I'm...sorry..."

Amelia scoffed. "If anyone should be sorry, it should really be me. It wasn't even my secret to tell but Damon was so shook up about it at the beginning." She looked up at Tyler and nodded. "Yeah, she lied to him about that and...yeah, I can see how he'd be angry. But I don't think that's enough for him to want to give up hope on her entirely. I don't think Claire didn't tell him about that out of spite, I just think...well, I just think she didn't want to talk about it. It was hard for me, too, admitting to her that I'd gotten pregnant after what happened with Michael Gilbert."

Tyler wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, but the difference is, she didn't have a child with her rapey half-sibling."

Caroline looked back at him, alarmed. "Will you shut up?!"

"Sorry..."

The other blonde laughed. "Yeah...okay...I'm gonna run out and get the cake now. You two finish up here. Besides, I've got to call Damon, anyways."

With a smile, she left the room, and once Amelia was out of the house, Caroline turned back at Tyler with a frown situated on her lips. "Just because I tell you things doesn't mean you're _allowed _to know them."

* * *

Klaus and Claire watched as Ray screamed aloud over the rock music playing in the background, as the bar's music choices decided to take a turn from southern to more angst, fitting for the situation. The werewolf Stefan was interrogating was chained up with his back against the dart board, blood dripping down the side of his face and pooling in other places. Stefan stood at the normal dart-throwing distance, twirling around another dart in the drink mixed with wolfsbane. Ray screamed aloud, even more agitated than before, trying to break free of the werewolf-proof chains. Without a word, Stefan stepped up and threw his dart right into Ray's shoulder, causing the werewolf to cry out in agony. No one cared around them, as Claire told them all to ignore what was happening and carry on with their usual business.

"Ray!" Stefan taunted. "You can end this right now! Just tell me where your pack gathers for the full moon."

The vampire stepped closer and ripped a dart out of Ray's throat as the man grunted out, "I can't."

Stefan sighed. "I know, I know. You live by a code and all that. But...see, he's not gonna let me stop until you tell me. And I do whatever he says. That's just the way it goes around here."

Claire, unwilling to watch the rest of the gruesome interaction between Ray and Stefan, turned to the bar over the counter and reached forward, grabbing an entire bottle of top-shelf tequila. Just as she did, she felt someone approach Klaus from beside him, causing the hybrid to kick down his legs and greet his guest.

"Hello, Mr. Klaus. I have some information for you." Stefan and Claire were both drawn away from what they were doing as they listened to the woman talking to Klaus. "You told me to tell you if I saw anything. I saw that guy's brother Damon at the farm house."

Klaus nodded graciously. "Well thank you, Claudine. You just tell your friends to keep up the good work with the neighborhood watch, huh?"

The dark hair girl nodded sheepishly and immediately took off, and just as she left, Stefan was right in front of Klaus with a scowl on his lips.

"My brother's still on our trail?"

"He's getting closer. I'm gonna have to deal with that."

Klaus turned to walk away, but before he could, Stefan caught his attention again and shook his head. "No, no, no. Let me handle it."

"Why should I let you leave?"

"Because you know I'll come back."

"Do I?"

"You saved my brother's life. I'm in your service." Stefan glanced over his shoulder at Claire, who popped open the new bottle of the best tequila in the bar. "And trust me, I wouldn't leave her with you."

"My hero," Claire muttered with a small, sarcastic smile, tilting the bottle towards him for a cheers before bringing her lips to the rim of the bottle. Klaus looked back at Stefan with a grimace.

"Oh, it all sounds so..._tedious _and indentured. Aren't you even having the least bit of fun?"

Klaus gestured back to the suffering werewolf with a smile, and Stefan looked at Ray trying to push back the guilt he felt in the depths of his stomach. Maintaining a rock-solid expression, he just sighed and ignored Klaus's question, continuing, "I'll make sure that my brother doesn't bother us anymore."

Without waiting for Klaus's response, Stefan walked past the hybrid and went to take care of Damon. Klaus didn't object, but as he realized Stefan's departure, he looked over at Claire, who was staring after Stefan with a blank expression upon her face. That's when she realized: it was her turn.

"Let me guess..." Her eyes moved back slowly to Klaus, who was studying her with a cocked eyebrow. "You want _me_ to continue, then?"

His smile told her everything. "Rule number four: why do something that others can do for you?"

Sourly, she lifted herself from the stool at the bar, obviously dreading heading over to where Stefan had left the cup full of wolfsbane and a few darts. She took a very heavy swig out of the tequila bottle before slamming it down on the tall circular table. Her feet carried her a few steps, her boot stomps confident. The overhead speakers blared another rock song, also extremely fitting with her attitude. Without a care, Claire reached forward, dipped a dart into the drink laced with wolfsbane, and twirled the dart in her finger.

With no warning whatsoever, she threw her arm back and sent the dart flying, twice as fast and twice as hard as Stefan's had. Nearly two months with Klaus and she was already ten times stronger, no matter how she disagreed with his methods. The dart practically pinned Ray to the dartboard behind him, the force of her throw causing him to scream so loud, the entire bar nearly shook. Claire put her hands on her hips and shot the werewolf a pointed look.

"I'm running out of places to bleed, Ray," she threatened. He ground his teeth together and looked back at her, nervous. "However, there is _one _place that Stefan didn't try for. And trust me, one throw and you'll wish you'd told us sooner."

Before Ray could get a chance to answer, there was a _tsk_ in the corner. Claire looked beside her to see Klaus approaching her from the side, shaking his head.

"That was weak, Clarissa," the hybrid scolded. She ran her tongue along her teeth, obviously irritated, but didn't turn to look at him. He took one of the darts from the table and dipped it in the glass next to her tequila bottle. "You can do much better."

"Oh, I can, can I?"

"If Stefan had thrown a dart like that one, I would have been impressed. But you?" He came up behind her and leaned down, his lips next to her ear. "You're a _King. _More powerful than any vampire on the planet with just the touch of your fingers. Sweetheart, you've got to try just a little harder."

"If I tried any harder..." Claire swallowed thickly, trying not to get agitated by the fact that Klaus was so close to her. "...I'd kill him."

He chuckled under his breath. "Well, the point's not to kill him. Not yet, anyways. No, there are other ways to be creative."

"Such as?"

"Here." Klaus fit the dart in her hand and closed his fingers around her fist. She stiffened as he stepped forward, uncomfortably close to her, and said softly into her ear, "It's all about concentration, love. Think about all the power inside of you concentrated to the tip of your fingers. Let your body do all the work and just sit back, relax, and..."

Klaus guided her hand back and she released the dart with momentum, and suddenly, it hit the lower part of Ray's abdomen and broke off into pieces, scattering the wound into a larger area. Claire's eyebrows knotted as she watched Ray scream out in tremendous pain, but she could feel the power in her fingers tingling. She'd never felt that sort of control before, but it was like her body recognized it. Klaus's grin stretched to his ears as he nodded.

"Rule number three," he said, his lips still at the side of her face, "use 100 percent of your power, Clarissa. Not a drop less."

Claire turned her head slightly and watched as he back away towards the bar again to sit down and wait for her to finish her task.

* * *

Elena stood around in Stefan's room, her fingertips gripping at the ends of her pure white dress as she stared at herself in the full-length mirror in her ex-boyfriend's room. Honestly, she shouldn't care so much that he was gone, but she couldn't help it. Everything they said to each other before the sacrifice had her reeling. Did he really love her? If he did, did he love her enough to choose her over Amelia? A million questions raced through her mind, questions that she wanted to ask Stefan but couldn't. She wanted him back.

Just as she was about to turn around, she looked up in the mirror to see Damon and Amelia sauntering into the room. Amelia gestured behind her.

"That party is..." She let out a sigh, indicating how extreme it was. Elena laughed. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna lose it." Elena turned back at them with a grin. "At least not before the cake."

"It's your party, you can cry if you want to." Damon shrugged at her and started looking around. "Ah, Stefan. Such a pack rat."

He moved over to one of the tables on the side of the wall, where he lifted up a picture of Stefan and Claire taken recently at what looked like Founder's Day, both of them suited in their old-fashioned clothes with their modern style. Damon stared down at Claire's face while Amelia turned to Elena and rubbed her hands together almost mischievously.

"Okay...so you might hate me for making a big deal out of your birthday, _but _I figured...you know, since I'm sort of like your great-great-great cousin or something like that, I got you something." Elena opened her mouth to protest, but Amelia hushed her. "Oh, relax. I didn't buy it. You made me and Damon promise, remember?"

Damon looked up from staring at the photo and plastered a smile on his face. "You don't need to worry about me breaking that promise, Elena, I didn't get you anything. Unless you count the bourbon downstairs, but technically I got that for me..."

Elena frowned at him and then turned back at Amelia. "Please tell me you didn't steal something just to salvage the no-buying rule."

"I would never. I found it." Elena watched as Amelia pulled out something from her pocket, and the human's eyes widened as she saw the vervain necklace that Stefan had given her hanging from Amelia's hands. Amelia smiled at the sight of the innocent human getting so happy, something that was rare nowadays, over something like a necklace. Granted, she knew what it represented, but it was the right thing to do. "I know this is weird because...well, because Stefan gave you this necklace and I'm pretty sure we both know how we feel about him. But putting that aside, Elena, you're my friend...at least, I think you are. And I wanted you to have this back."

"My necklace," Elena whispered in wonder. "I thought I'd never see it again. Where did you find it?"

"Alaric," she replied with a soft smile. "He figured you'd be happy to get it back."

"I am! I..." Elena looked up at Amelia and suddenly rushed forward, pulling Amelia into a hug. The blonde stiffened for a moment, but eventually wearily hugged Elena back. Elena swallowed thickly and sighed. "Thank you, Amelia. And for the record, we are friends. Stefan or no Stefan, we're still related."

Damon approached them and crossed his arms. "Can I be the first to say that I would _really _enjoy a pillow fight right about now?" Amelia and Elena turned back at him with devil eyes, but he just chuckled and stuck out his hand. "Here, I'll help."

"Thank you," Elena told him as she handed him the necklace she had taken from Amelia and lifted her hair so Damon could put it on for her. Damon clipped the necklace onto her neck and nodded to both girls.

"Shall we?"

"We shall," Amelia agreed as she took hold of one of his arms and Elena took hold of the other. The three then walked out of Stefan's room and downstairs to where the party was. The Salvatore home was blasting with modern music, people surrounding every corner in the large mansion. The second Elena was visible to the guests, everyone started to bombard her with birthday wishes. She did her best to try and thank them all, and when Damon, Amelia, and Elena all came to a slow at the Salvatore parlor, they observed at least a hundred people in the room alone, most of them crowded around someone at a beer keg in the corner. Damon watched as one girl moved out of the parlor carrying his expensive bourbon he kept in the liquor cabinet. He shook his head and stopped the human.

"Oh, hey, hey, hey! You don't want that." He grabbed the bottle and looked into the human's eyes. "You want the cheap, young stuff over by the cheap, young people." The girl nodded and walked away, letting Damon have the bottle in his hand. Afterwards, they all saw Caroline approach them from within the crowd, a happy grin on her face.

"You like?!" she shouted over the music. Elena opened her mouth, but Caroline stopped her when she realized something nasty was going to come out. "Don't answer that."

"This is 'keeping it small'?" Elena scoffed, but Caroline just smiled cutely at her until the dark-haired human finally rolled her eyes and agreed. "What are we drinking?"

"I know what I'm drinking," Amelia muttered as Caroline took Elena through the crowd and she stepped over to Damon and ripped the bourbon bottle out of his hand, taking a swig for herself. Damon's eyes went wide, almost as if he was about to kill her.

"Did you just steal my bourbon?"

"Yup."

Damon watched with disdain as Amelia smirked at him and walked in another direction out of his sight. Regardless, there was more bourbon in the house, so he grabbed another bottle and went out onto the front step, where sure enough, there were more high school kids crowding around him. He spotted Alaric trying to get out of the mess of drunk teenagers and soon enough, they were both sitting on the ledge outside drinking endless cups of bourbon.

"I am every parent's worst nightmare," Alaric complained. "I'm the chaperone teacher from hell."

Damon ignored him. "I _love _high school parties."

"Isn't Andie supposed to be coming?"

"Ten o'clock broadcast. She'll be here in a little bit." Damon pulled his glass up to drink the bourbon inside of it just as he witnessed a furious Elena walk out of the house with an irritated look. Instead of responding to her obvious bad mood, Damon grinned. "Hello, birthday girl!"

"Drink," she demanded, her hand outstretched to grab the cup from his hand. Damon frowned as she snatched the bourbon from his fingers and took a hearty swig from the crystal glass before turning back to Alaric. "Jeremy's smoking again."

Damon shrugged. "Is his stash any good?"

"You're an ass!" she exclaimed, unamused by his nonchalant attitude. Damon didn't respond as Elena turned back to Alaric with a sigh. "Talk to him. Please? He looks up to you."

Elena didn't even bother waiting for an answer, she just gave Damon back his drink and walked away as if the conversation was a done deal. Alaric watched as the 18-year-old left their side and let his eyes wander to Damon, who shrugged again.

"You're screwed." Ten minutes later, after Amelia had joined Alaric and Damon in their efforts to deplete the house's supply of bourbon-whiskey, Damon looked away from their conversation to find a text message from Andie. With a sigh, he announced to his friends, "Andie wants me to pick her up."

Alaric scoffed. "Your fake, compelled girlfriend wants you to be a chivalrous boyfriend?"

Amelia chuckled as she set down her bottle of bourbon. "Mm, no. His fake, compelled girlfriend whom he only sleeps with to fill a void that my sister created when she left town, wants him to be a chivalrous boyfriend."

Damon turned around with a scowl. "It's a complicated dynamic." He downed his drink. "Hold the fort down, will ya?"

"You mean the fort full of my drunk history students?" Alaric corrected. Damon smiled and put his hand on the bourbon bottle in front of them.

"Drink more. It'll feel less weird."

* * *

Elena pushed open the door to Damon's bedroom, looking around and searching for him, as she didn't find him with Alaric and Amelia downstairs, but they looked too busy drinking for her to go up and ask them where to find him. When she walked inside of the room, she heard a voice.

"This room's off limits!" Elena turned her head to find Caroline sitting in the bathroom. She cocked an eyebrow.

"Caroline?"

"Sorry..." Caroline shrugged, the blood bag evident in her hand. "I just...needed to take a beat." Elena laughed in agreement and Caroline, with a sigh, set down the blood bag in the bathroom and walked forward, crossing her arms suspiciously. "Are you hiding?"

Elena smiled. "I was just looking for Damon."

The blonde frowned. "Well, he'd better be here somewhere, because we haven't even done the cake yet!"

Elena threw up her hands. "I think I'm gonna...pass on the whole cake thing."

"No!" the vampire protested suddenly, her voice raising an octave. "No way, no! It's your...birthday! No, it's the dawn of a new day, and...you can't get on with your life until you've made a wish and blown out the candles!"

The dark-haired human paused briefly, Caroline's words replaying in her head. _Get on with your life. _It itched at her, the way Caroline said it...it was like how everyone had been treating her wrapped up into one nice little sentence. Elena, nevertheless, exploded.

"Get on with my life? I've been giving Amelia leads all summer and she acts like it's no big deal, but I _know _she wants to find Stefan, too! And Damon...Damon doesn't even care anymore! No one tells me anything and I don't understand! Is that what you all want me to do? Just...move on?"

"No!" Caroline defended herself, but as a moment of silence passed, she admitted. "Maybe...I just don't think anyone wants to see you like this."

"I'm not giving up on finding Stefan, Caroline."

"But...why?" she questioned, looking at Elena seriously. "I mean, Elena, you broke up with him when you realized he still loved Amelia. Let her find him! You have to admit, you're kinda just letting your life pass you by. And besides, isn't Stefan the one who wanted to make sure that you lived it?"

"You want me to make a wish?" Elena prompted her with a shrug. Caroline nodded as Elena continued sourly, "I just...want to know that he's alive. That's it. That's my wish."

She moved towards the door, finished with the conversation, but she came to a slow when she saw Damon's closet door open with papers sticking out from it. Caroline, who heard her stop short at the doorway, just let out an apologetic sigh.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm just...drunk and dumb tonight. You know..." She turned to watch Elena make headway for Damon's closet slowly, intrigued. Caroline tilted her head, confused. "Wait, what are you doing?"

Elena walked up to the door and opened it carefully, peering inside to see a bunch of maps and newspaper clippings inside. On the door, there was a large map of the US with red thumbtacks on places on the East Coast with other newspaper clippings pinned to the door accompanied by sticky-notes that all had names on them, either Klaus, Claire, or Stefan. Caroline approached her friend's side, confused.

"What's all that?" Caroline whispered.

"It's Klaus..." Elena said quietly, her eyes moving across the map on the door. "Damon's been tracking him without me."

"Why wouldn't he just tell you?"

Elena fought the rising anger inside of her. "I don't know."

"There you guys are!" Amelia exclaimed, partially drunk, as she walked into Damon's room to find Elena and Caroline crowded around Damon's closet. She wrinkled her nose at them. "Why the hell are you in Damon's room? It's boring and cold...kinda like him."

Elena swung the closet door open for her to see and pointed into it. "Did you know about this, Amelia?"

"Know about what?" She shook her head and walked forward to see what Elena was talking about, noting all the newspaper clippings she and Elena had given to Damon pinned up to the door along with the trail of thumbtacks on the map. Her eyes widend. "Son of a bitch. That bastard's been lying to me?"

"Lying?" Caroline repeated. Amelia looked back at her with a nod.

"Yeah! He never shared any of this with me! He just kept saying that he found nothing and that it was a dead end. Mother of..." She stared at Elena and Caroline angrily before patting her jeans down, looking for something. With a grumble, she snapped, "I left my phone downstairs. That boy is getting a piece of my mind."

While Amelia fume over Damon's lies, he was at the Mystic Falls news studio looking for his girlfriend. He called out her name multiple times, getting increasingly impatient as the clock continued to click. From inside of the pocket of his jeans. Damon felt his phone vibrate with an incoming call, so he pulled it out and, realizing it was from Amelia, he answered it with glee.

"Party central."

_"Get your ass back here!" _Amelia demanded. Noticing her angry tone, he paused briefly before lying.

"What are you talking about? I'm by the...punch bowl."

_"I'm not believing another word out of your mouth, Damon! Quit lying to me! Elena and I found your closet full of skeletons." _

Damon's eyes widened as he stuttered, "Oh, oh gotta go...gotta go break up beer pong!"

_"I swear to God, Damon Salvatore_—"

He didn't listen to her finish the sentence, instead he hung up the second he finished speaking and slipped his phone into his pocket. He would deal with Amelia and Elena later, but he felt there was something deeply wrong. Andie was nowhere to be found in the dark office, but he heard a small rustling coming from one of the stages. He went inside, his eyes looking around carefully. There was no one inside as he turned his head and moved his eyes over a bunch of equipment by the door, but then he heard footsteps.

"Stefan."

When Damon looked up, he was surprised to see his brother standing a few feet in front of him, his hands behind his stiff back, his expression emotionless. Stefan barely blinked.

"Hello, brother."

The two Salvatores stood at odds from across the way. "You don't write. You don't call..."

"I need you to stop following me and Claire." Stefan looked at his brother seriously. "Causing some...problems."

"With who, Klaus? I'm supposed to care what he thinks?"

"What you're supposed to do...is let us go."

Damon sauntered forward, hardly stopping because of his brother's lack of conversational skills. Ignoring Stefan's repetitive requests, he noted, "Saw your latest artwork in Tennessee. Walking a fine line there, my friend. Keep that up and there will be no saving you."

Stefan chuckled to himself. "See, the thing is, uh...I don't need any saving. Neither does Claire. We just want you to let us go."

The dark-haired Salvatore frowned. "She wants me to let her go, she can come tell me herself."

"She doesn't want to see you, Damon. Why do you think she isn't here?" Damon stiffened with the blow as Stefan once more clarified, "Let us go."

Damon raised a sigh deep in his chest, but didn't let his brother's words get to him. Instead, he tsked. "See, I've got a birthday girl and a pretty young blonde at home who aren't going to let me do that."

Stefan was quiet, but at last, he nodded. "You know, maybe I haven't made my point. Hey, Andie, you still there?"

The bronze-haired Salvatore looked back as Damon raised his eyebrows. "Andie?"

"Damon!" Andie cried, and Damon looked up to the ceiling to find his girlfriend standing on a ledge up in the rafters. He could hear her cry, "I can't move, Damon. He told me that I can't move."

"No, no, no, it's okay, Andie! Stay calm!" Damon shouted up at her before looking back at his brother furiously. "Not cool, brother!"

"Oh, come on! It's a little bit cool, huh?" The elder Salvatore stepped forward as Stefan shouted, without moving a muscle, "Hey, Andie. You can move now."

"No!" Damon shouted the word over and over again. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Right as he was about to move and save her from falling down as she toppled over the ledge, Stefan gripped onto his brother's throat and slammed him against the farthest wall, leaving Damon to watch as Andie fell face-first on the concrete floor, her neck audibly cracking. Stefan, right in his brothers face, growled, "I said...let us go!"

With a tight grip on Damon's throat, Stefan made his point and finally released his brother, who fled over to Andie's side the second he was allowed to. He turned her over to find her face brused from the impact, and there was absolutely no sign of life, not that he expected there to be. Damon took a moment to look at her, but remembering his brother behind him, he quickly whipped around, only to find himself alone on the stage. Damon, defeated, leaned back on his bottom and sighed while he stared at his dead girlfriend in front of him.

* * *

When Damon arrived back at the boarding house, he was hardly in the mood to deal with Elena, Amelia, or any of the teenagers roaming around in his house. Upon entry, he watched as Tyler led Caroline out of the house and she stopped at Damon, shoving his bourbon bottle into his hand.

"Hey!" she snapped angrily, and possibly drunkenly. "You missed the cake!"

Damon turned and watched her leave, but he wasn't in the mood to care. He set the bottle down on the nearest flat surface and continued up to his bedroom to have some peace and quiet. But peace and quiet on a day like that day...well, it was nearly impossible. Sure enough, as soon as he reached his bedroom, the music playing softly in a distance, he tried to catch his breath but found Amelia and Elena both waiting on him, the two of them sifting furiously through all of his work that he had put into tracking Stefan and Claire. That, out of all things, was something that he didn't feel like dealing with at that moment.

"What?" Damon snapped, exhausted. "What are you two doing here?"

Amelia threw up her hand, where she had a bunch of newspapers gripped tightly. "What reason was there not to tell me? Why did you keep it a secret?"

"Can we not do this right now? I'm having a really bad night."

To be fair, he did ask nicely. But Elena, who stood beside Amelia, wasn't going to let him off that easy. She stepped forward, a judgemental look on her face. "All summer, every single time Amelia and I came to you with a lead, you made us feel like idiots for having hope!"

Damon's eyes suddenly snapped over to Elena, where he looked into her doe eyes with seriousness. "You were an idiot! Both of you! As a matter of fact, we all were."

He moved to escape her clutches, but before he could, Elena held out a hand to stop him. "Tell me what you know, Damon."

Damon tried not to explode at her. He really tried. "I know you need to get back to your party, Elena."

"We're supposed to be in this together! All three of us!" Elena shouted at him as he brushed past her and Amelia. "Why didn't you tell me that you've been tracking Klaus's victims?"

"Because they're not Klaus's victims, Elena, they're Stefan's!" Damon snapped, turning around at her. She stopped cold.

"What?"

"He's left a trail of body parts up and down the Eastern seaboard!"

"Damon—" Amelia began, trying to stop him before the conversation escalated to the point of no return. But Elena had already pushed him over the edge, and there was no going back.

"No," Elena breathed out, shaking her head in refusal. "You're wrong."

"I've seen it happen before." Damon stepped forward, his eyes wide at the human. "He's flipped the switch"—he reached forward and snatched the newspapers from her hands—"to full-blown Ripper!"

"Stop, Damon," Amelia demanded him, reaching forward to push him back. Instead, he jerked his arm to himself and snapped back at her.

"You stop! Both of you! Stop looking for him. Stop waiting for him to come home. Just stop!" At that point, he was practically in Elena's face, and the human, unable to take the dark side of Damon, flinched. Damon, however, didn't stop there. "Stefan is gone and he's not coming back. Not in your lifetime."

After witnessing Damon's harsh words, unable to contain herself, Elena's eyes started watering and she turned, rushing towards the door and slamming it on her way out. Damon sighed, remorseful the second she walked out the door. He really didn't mean to be so harsh with her, but she just kept poking him and poking him until he snapped. Amelia, who was left alone with Damon, turned to him with wide, outraged eyes.

"Just because you're upset about Claire doesn't give you the right to yell at her!" Amelia scolded him, this time not playing around. Damon swallowed thickly. "I know you miss her, Damon! I know! I miss her, too! But I also miss Stefan, and I don't go around yelling at Elena about how he can't be saved! The one thing she had to hold onto was hope and you ripped that away from her!"

"There is no more hope, Amelia," Damon mumbled. "Not anymore."

"Damon..." She stepped forward cautiously and closed her eyes. "I know that it...that it hurts. I know what she told you..._had _to have hurt. But you cannot take it out on her...on me, on anyone! I gave you the benefit of the doubt but...but I don't think I can handle it much longer."

Damon's jaw squared at the sister of the woman he loved, using Claire as an excuse to make him talk about his pain. The dark-haired Salvatore shook his head.

"Good thing you don't have to," he snapped and brushed past her, bumping her shoulder as he fled his own room, unwilling to bear the blonde any longer.

* * *

Claire's tequila bottle was beginning to run out as the night came to an end. Klaus stood at the side of the billiard table where he had tied Ray up to after she had finally gotten him to admit where his pack ran on the full moon. Twirling a knife in his hand, Klaus begna.

"Okay, it's a three-step process, right? This is step one. I want you to drink from my wrist."

Ray, choking on the blood in his throat from all the wolfsbane, grumbled, "I already told you where to find the pack. What more do you want from me?"

"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying, Ray? I have great plans for you." He pointed the knife at Ray's face for a moment before pulling back and using the knife in his hand to create an incision on his wrist. He then, against Ray's will, forced the wolf to feed off of the blood that poured incessantly from the cut. Klaus smiled and looked up at Claire, who was frowning. "He'll thank me for it later. There we go, attaboy!"

When Klaus felt like Ray had had enough, he removed his wrist from the wolf's mouth and let Ray relax. Though Klaus's back was to him, he felt Stefan's presence as his vampire friend entered the bar and walked right over to Claire, who noticed him with a small nod. Stefan nodded back and she offered her tequila to him, whereupon he took a huge gulp.

"What are you going to do now?" Ray asked, his nose wrinkled in distaste for the blood he could still feel lingering in his mouth. Klaus looked down at him with a smirk.

"It's time for step two, Ray." The hybrid reached forward and cracked Ray's neck, leaving the wolf dead on the table. Then, without wasting anymore time on the dead wolf, he looked up at Stefan with a nod. "You're back."

"Did you doubt me?"

"Not for a second. I knew you'd pass the test. You still care for your brother; for your old life."

Stefan laughed and shook his head. "I don't care about anything anymore."

"You put on a good show, Stefan. I almost believe you," Klaus praised as the Salvatore walked over to a small table in the corner and laid his head down. Klaus continued, "Let's just hope for your brother's sake he does." He leaned down and whispered, "You never stop caring about family, do you? But every time you feed, the blood makes it easier to let go."

* * *

Damon somehow found himself in Claire's room, despite the subconscious thought in his head telling him to get the hell out of there. It was cold, untouched since her departure. He never could bring himself to enter it, finding it to be both a violation of her privacy and a stimulant to his emotions. It was as if, by not visiting her room, he was convincing himself that she would be back soon enough to inhabit it once again.

But he was just fooling himself, wasn't he?

Damon walked over to the dresser in the corner, an archaic thing with a huge mirror and a bunch of drawers. On the surface, there were multiple things: a cluster of makeup, hairties, and other things of that nature. Girl stuff. Beside the dresser was the closet, where he knew everything would be. Damon had neglected doing this before; he didn't want to do this. It wasn't his place, he thought. He didn't want to be angry with her. He wanted to wait for her to tell him the truth. It was a violation, he thought, to do what he wanted to.

Now he didn't care. Now, it was time for him to know. Violation or not.

Inside the closet, he found what he was looking for in a box of things labeled 1862. After digging around for a few moments, he found a small book lying at the bottom, dust settled on top of it. It was a journal, one that he knew his brother had convinced her to write. She'd told him once about the fact that she hated all the journals Stefan had made her write back when they were human, and he figured it was worth a shot. He wanted to know what happened.

His fingers undid the tie on the front of the journal and he flipped through the pages until he found the entry he wanted, just a few weeks after he had left for the war.

_September 1862_

_Dear Diary, _

_I didn't think this would happen. How could I have been so ill-minded? I was caught up in the moment, driven by my emotions. It may have felt right at the time, but it was the worst thing I had ever done, giving myself to Damon Salvatore. All right, perhaps I would not go that far. I wanted to do it, I did. I do not think that would have changed unless I knew what would happen at the time. _

_If Mother and Father find out, I'll be ruined. They've already started looking at suitors for me with other families. I've tried to delay them as long as I could, ever since my falling out with Damon, but it's useless now. Father hit me when I tried to tell him I did not want to meet Thomas and Honoria's son. It won't be long now before I'll have no more options left. _

_I have one option right now. The only option. I cannot have this child. I have to get rid of it. There's a part of me that wants this...but alas, I cannot. Damon will not be home from the war for at least another six months, and we aren't husband and wife. I will be shamed by everyone. And if he dies...if he dies, this child will have no father. _

_I know what I have to do, but I do not want to. But the question begs, should I do what I want or what I must do to avoid my family's reputation ruined? Amelia has already shamed our family once. I cannot do it as well._

Damon, furious, flipped to another page and read another entry a few weeks later.

_November 1862_

_Dear Diary, _

_I was ready. I was ready to terminate my mistake. I accepted it. I realized my sin and I asked for forgiveness in advance. My parents had not realized my lie. I knew it was a horrible thing to do, but I had no other choice. I vowed to myself to tell Damon of my decision. I__ owed him that courtesy after everything we'd been through._

_And then it happened. _

_Jessica had put me to bed one night when I felt something strange. A sharp feeling in my stomach. It was so painful I could barely move. She pleaded to me to let her go and get my parents, but I refused. Instead, I made her take me to the town doctor without telling a soul. There was so much blood, so much pain. I could barely stand to breathe without screaming. I ordered the doctor to sedate me so he could assess without alerting any of the neighbors, and he did. I don't remember much, but when I woke, he was sitting in front of me with sorrow in his eyes. I refused to accept what had happened, no matter what I planned to do. I don't know how long I've cried. Jessica has tried to cheer me up, but I have been stuck in my room for almost two days. I feel as if I am sick to my stomach. Is this my punishment for involving myself with Damon Salvatore before marriage? Is this how God has stricken me? Am I not forgiven? _

_I cannot face him. I cannot face Damon any longer. Only today have I managed to get out of bed and eat something. If I even look at him for more than a moment, I may fall apart. He can never know of our unborn child for as long as I shall ache. _

Damon stared down at the journal, unsure whether to be angry or devastated. His eyes traced over Clarissa's elegant cursive over and over again until every word was branded inside of his head, but it was too much for him to handle. Suddenly, he exploded.

First went the closet, all of her boxes that were categorized completely shredded. Then, he walked out into her room and trashed everything, all of her tables, lamps, her dresser, her bookcase. Everything in sight was fair game. How could she do that to him? How could she keep a secret like that?

But then he stopped. A picture of Claire, completely shattered and destroyed, had ended up right next to his feet, and he couldn't stop himself. His knees buckled and he was on the floor, hopeless.

* * *

Stefan could feel his chest tighten, cutting off the air that he needed to sustain himself. He walked out of the bar quickly, trying to get all of the air he could. But he stopped in the parking lot and looked up at the sky, frozen. He could feel everything in his body, all of the hurt, the pain. He'd killed his brother's girlfriend. He saw the look on Damon's face when he'd told him that Claire never wanted to see him again. Damon was heartbroken and Elena...Amelia...he couldn't handle it. He cared too much.

Slowly, against his better judgement, Stefan reached into his back pocket and pulled out his new phone that he had gotten earlier in the summer when Klaus got fed up with Elena, who had called him nonstop. He knew Elena's number by heart, and, though he knew he shouldn't, he dialed it and hesitantly brought the phone to his ear. It rang once, twice, a third time, and all Stefan could prey was that it went to voicemail. He didn't know what would happen if she answered it, and he was too frozen cold to decline the call.

_Voicemail, _he begged. _Voicemail...voicemail...voice_—

_"Hello?" _Elena asked over the phone, her sweet, innocent human voice unmistakable. Stefan's heart ached hearing that voice; it was like music to his ears. _Happy birthday, _he thought over and over again, willing himself to say something. But nothing came out. Suddenly, Elena gasped. _"Stefan?" _

_Say something! _Stefan ordered himself, but again, nothing came out. _Idiot! Speak! Speak!_

_"Stefan, if this is you..." _Elena continued softly, her voice sounding like it was full of tears. _"You'll be okay. You can survive this. I love you, Stefan. Hold on to that. Never let that go." _

Stefan's eyes swelled up with tears. He knew he should speak, but he didn't. Instead, he just nodded and held on.

* * *

Klaus watched as Claire tossed back the tequila bottle and finished the very last drop. Disappointed, she returned to level and frowned at the lack of alcohol, pushing the bottle aside, useless. Klaus, who was nursing his own bottle of alcohol—bourbon, of course—smiled as he took a glass from behind the bar and poured Claire some from his own stash. Claire watched him with a cocked eyebrow, but he slid the bourbon to her with a smirk.

"Never be afraid to have a little fun, Clarissa." Klaus held up his glass. "That's rule number two, I believe."

Claire stared at him as he pulled his glass of bourbon to his lips and watched her, waiting for her to drink. Instead, he witnessed her bitterly reach forward, take the glass, and dumped its contents behind the bar and let the glass fall, crashing to the ground. Klaus's smile turned stale as her lips turned up in as our smile and she lifted herself up from the bar stool beside him, leaving to do something else that didn't involve being around Klaus. The hybrid watched her as she left, and then he turned back to himself at the bar.

"And then there's the first rule," he muttered to himself as he raised the bourbon to his lips. "Always accept new challenges."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**SomebodyWhoCares: **:)

**grapejuice101: **Yep! It's gonna get real fun real soon. Haha well this chapter definitely confirmed that Klaus is ready to "accept new challenges" if you know what I mean. Thanks for the review!

**NicoleR85: **Thank you! Here's the update! Took me a little long, but I hope you enjoyed it!

**Tvd2014: **Haha yeah I think I updated that when I was sick or something but I knew I wanted to get that chapter out fast so I could get a move on with S3. Claire [is/was] slowly starting to care about Damon and that scene at the beginning was her own personal feelings about the matter. I felt really sad for Damon when I was writing those scenes because you know, he's so tormented about Claire because she basically puts him in this position where he has to question himself and you know, it's not really all that fair, but she has her own insecurities. Claire wasn't willing to let someone else die, not after Christopher, so her going to Klaus was making sure that Damon would live. Klaus didn't do anything to her and she doesn't really have 'blood lust' but that scene at the end was because Klaus practically forced her to feed, plus this chapter sort of gave some insight to the whole Claire being Klaus's prodigy thing that's going on. There will be a lot more obstacles in this season so yeah it'll be a little painful for now but it'll all be worth it. Thank you!

**Gigi: **Thanks!

**maryanne: **Aw that sucks! Sorry but I don't do Klaus/OC/Kol stories...I liked Kol as a character but sometimes he pissed me off so making a Klaus/OC/Kol story wouldn't really be effective. But I'm sorry that the story got deleted! Hopefully someone has an idea like it so that you can get your Kol fix. Thanks for the review!

**Friday1221: **Yep! It was very, very sad, and her journal entries in this chapter just made it even sadder (at least for me it did). That's not the end of it, either. Damon and Claire's problems this season will somewhat stem from this secret...Damon feels betrayed, Claire feels pressured, it'll all be very tug-o-warish. Yeah, Amelia doesn't really have a lot to do at the moment and I'm trying to give her a storyline but the problem is, I have a really, really good arc for her in Season 4 but in Season 3, most of it is going to be just about her, Stefan, and Elena which is just so annoying but I don't really have anything else so I just have to live with that. If you have any ideas, though, you can always share them with me! Stefan and Claire will definitely be developing a closer friendship in Season 3, especially in the next four episodes. In this episode, they didn't really interact much, but that was because they both had a lot on their minds. Sorry for the wait but I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

**beth: **Here's the update!

**rory: **Here's the update!

**beth: **Here's the update!


	38. The Hybrid

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The Hybrid**

_"Whether suicide or a tragic accident, WPKW News has lost one of its shining stars." _Damon turned his head to see the television screen in his room as he was standing by his closet, taking down all the pins where he had tracked Claire, Klaus, and Stefan. A young blonde reported on the screen, _"A young reporter and weekend anchor, Andie Star, was discovered..." _

"Just can't stay away, can you?" Damon called out as he returned to his daily bidding while Elena walked into the room, her expression piteous. He had a solid grimace on his face and refused to look at her as she entered, sighing at him.

"You've been dodging my calls."

"Yeah, well, busy dating a dead, fake girlfriend and all."

Elena gave a somber sigh. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Happy birthday, Elena! Stefan killed Andie. Cake?"

Bitterly, Damon brushed past the human with a bunch of the newspaper clippings in his hand from his closet full of maps. Without moving an inch, Elena called out over her shoulder. "He called me, Damon!"

Damon stopped and turned around. "What?"

"Stefan called me last night," Elena told him, moving to face the dark-haired, sour Salvatore. Damon paused.

"Well...what'd he say?"

"He didn't say anything." Damon's eyes narrowed, and she quickly defended herself. "B-But it was him! I asked Sheriff Forbes if she would trace the call's origin. It came from Tennessee."

"Where he's been binge-drinking on the country folk." Disinterested, Damon turned around at the fireplace in his room. "We went through this, Elena. Stefan's gone." She watched him throw the clippings into the fire and grab a match from the mantle and turned around with a sour smile. "And I don't mean geographically."

She didn't let herself get disappointed. Instead, she fought persistently. "If he was gone, he wouldn't have called."

Damon gave Elena an unimpressed look and, without wasting any more of his time, he turned his back towards her and looked down at the fireplace, waiting for Elena to leave. Elena stood at the threshold of his bedroom for a second, possibly two, before she finally turned to walk out. But instead of leaving, she stopped short and turned around with a frustrated breath.

"I don't know why you've suddenly given up hope on them. On her." Elena blurted out. Damon didn't turn around. "No matter what she did a hundred years ago...no matter what she does now, it shouldn't matter. You love her. You shouldn't give up so easily."

Without moving a muscle in his body, Damon listened to Elena's lecture before she walked around of the room softly, more disappointed than anything else. But instead of going after her, all he did was strike a match and light the fire in front of him.

* * *

Alaric woke to incessant rapping on the door. A half-drunk bottle of bourbon was lying beside him as he rolled over from his face-down position on his pillow from where he had passed out the night before. Sensitive to the light that was shining in from his window, he shied away from the brightness as the knocking continued, hurting his already pounding head.

"Go away, Damon!" the drunk shouted grumpily, but the knocking didn't stop. Frustrated, Alaric forced himself up from his bed and finally swung open the door to reveal Amelia, waiting impatiently. She opened her mouth to say something but just settled upon a disapproving look, eyeing his unbuttoned pants and his lack of a decent shirt.

"Good morning to you, too."

"You're...not who I expected." Alaric cleared his throat and buttoned his pants uncomfortably as he watched Amelia frown.

"I need to know everything Damon knows about Stefan and Tennessee."

"...Then why don't you ask Damon?"

"Look, I'm not up to talking to Damon right now. He's pissy and moody because his booty-call girlfriend was killed last night by Klaus's new puppet, who happens to be my boyfriend. Can I come inside?"

But instead of inviting her in, Alaric just leaned against the door and shook his head. "I don't know if you got the memo from Elena, but I checked out of all this last night. Go find some other way to bring your off-the-rails boyfriend back."

He tried to shut the door on her, but instead, she stopped it with her hand, pushing so hard that it was forced back open. Alaric sighed heavily and watched as she cocked an eyebrow at him. "You know, this isn't all about Stefan. This is about Claire, too. I need to find my sister. Please."

Alaric hesitated for a moment, but he realized that, whatever reservations he had about the guy who he had seen the victims of, Claire was (hopefully) not a part of the same business. On the same token, he knew that Damon was being stubborn and, in light of recent events with Andie, had given up on Claire entirely, which he didn't think was for the best. Finally, he stepped aside and gestured into the apartment.

"Come in, Amelia."

"Thank you," she chirped as she stepped through the threshold into the apartment. Alaric shut the door behind her and grabbed a shirt from a chair next to the door, slipping it over his shoulders as Amelia talked. "Yes, I need to find my sister. _But, _I want to find Stefan, too. Just because he killed Andie doesn't mean he's gone completely psycho."

Alaric rubbed his eyes. "Amelia, you didn't see his victims. I did."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Stefan's a 'ripper'. That doesn't change the fact that Stefan is still...Stefan. I'm not gonna give up on him and...and, well, Damon's given up on Claire, but there's no way I'd ever do that to her. I have to find them." She stepped forward and looked at him with serious eyes. "Please tell me what you know, Ric."

The teacher hesitated, debating internally what the right thing to do was in the sticky situation, but at last, he sighed and gave in, telling Amelia the whole truth.

* * *

The hot droplets of water cascaded down her face as Claire stood in the scorching hot shower, merely standing. Memories danced across her vision, memories of only a few weeks before when she had left Damon, sick and dying, to go and strike a deal with Klaus. It had only been a few months and she felt tired already, but there would be no giving into the temptation of leaving. She was Klaus's bitch, like it or not, for the rest of eternity.

Right as Claire finally stepped out of her long, hot shower, there was a sudden bang on the door and it was thrown open. She quickly pulled her towel close to her body and stared angrily at her intruder, the infamous Klaus staring with an inappropriate grin.

"Sorry to interrupt, love."

"Sure you are, you bastard!" she shouted before reaching forward on the sick, throwing a small bottle of lotion at him. "Get the hell out of here! This is the _one _hour a day I get to spend away from you!"

Klaus chuckled. "Cut the hour short, sweetheart, we've got to get going now. We have a busy day ahead of us."

Although Claire was thoroughly peeved, she looked ten times more pissed because of the fact that she was dripping wet with water and clutching her towel at her chest. Klaus realized her anger, but merely smiled in appreciation, whether for her attitude or for her appearance she didn't know. When a long moment passed, she sighed frustratedly.

"Is that it?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Then get out!"

"Alright, alright..." he conceded, snickering to himself as he shut the door and left her to her bidding. Claire ran a frustrated hand through her wet hair and walked over to the sink, where she leaned on it for a few moments to curve the anger she could feel towards him. As her knuckles clenched the sink at her fingertips, she accidentally felt the marble chip. When she pulled her palm up to her eyes, she noticed it was more than a small piece, but a big chunk of marble from the countertop.

"Unbelievable," she murmured, unimpressed, as she threw the marble down into the sink and marched into her closet to get changed.

Two hours or so later, after she had a sufficient breakfast, Klaus, Stefan, and Claire were all walking through the forests of the Smoky Mountains. Stefan was dragging Ray on his back, causing Klaus's sarcastic concern for his well-being.

"You okay? Is Ray getting heavy?" he condescended.

Stefan exhaled heavily. "I'm fine."

"You sure about that? You know, we've been walking for quite some time now. If you need some water or a little sit-down..."

But Stefan wasn't taking it. Unlike Claire, who was just following behind without saying a word, speaking louder than her actions, he was so sour about their situation that he wanted to fight back. It was the only way, Stefan realized, for Klaus to give him some respect. The thing was, Claire already had hers. She was the originator of his strength, the King Blood that nourished him. Stefan, on the other hand, was nothing but a pawn, a servant, in Klaus's mind.

"You know, I get that we're...uh, we're stuck together, but if we could maybe just skip the chitchat, it'd be great," he ordered. Klaus groaned.

"So much brooding. Your self-loathing is suffocating you, my friend. Why can't you have the self respect Clarissa does?"

Klaus threw a look at the blonde behind him and watched as she scoffed and replied, "Don't mistake my hatred for you as self respect, Klaus."

The hybrid shrugged. "At least she's honest."

"Maybe my self-loathing is because I'm a little tired of hunting werewolves," Stefan suggested as they moved along the trail. "We've been at it all summer."

"Thanks to our pal Ray, we found ourselves a pack. There." Klaus came to a slow, causing Stefan and Claire to both halt as well as they came to face a civilization in the middle of the mountains, all of them werewolves in preparation for the full moon alter in the evening. Klaus smiled.

The three vampires moved forward, causing the pack of werewolves to all turn their heads at the intruder. When Stefan walked forward with Ray on his shoulders, they suddenly realized that what was about to happen was much more serious than they would've thought. Stefan threw Ray's transitioning body down on the ground, where a woman with dark hair rushed forward, her eyes wide.

"Ray! Oh, my God!" she cried out. Another male went to her side and noticed the blood on Ray's shirt. The dark-haired woman whispered and looked up at Stefan. "What's going on? Who are you?"

"The important question is...who am I?" All werewolves moved to look at Klaus and his polite, yet cold smile. "Please...forgive the intrusion. My name is Klaus." And with his name, the entire pack stiffened, whereupon Klaus smiled vindictively while they all stared at the almighty hybrid, his brute-force vampire, and the pissed-off blonde one right beside him.

"You're the hybrid," the woman with the dark hair realized.

"You've heard of me. Fantastic!"

* * *

"A lot of us like to keep to ourselves for the full moon. Chain ourselves up." Tyler told Amelia as they both sat at a booth at the Grill, talking lowly. She nodded along, urging him to continue. "But there are some werewolves that like to gather in places where they don't have to do that. Where they can enjoy it."

She nodded in agreement. "Okay, so where could I find them?"

"Mountains...state parks...deserts, that kind of stuff."

"Have you heard of any packs in Tennessee?"

The wolf nodded immediately without hesitation. "Yeah. Here, give me your phone. I'll try to pull up the map."

While he took her phone and looked up the destination he could point Amelia to so she and Alaric could track her sister and Stefan down, Amelia let out a deep sigh. "I really appreciate you doing this, Tyler. I know it's hard because of...well, because it's Klaus, but—"

"Don't worry about it, Amelia." He brushed her off, shaking his head to stop her from apologizing. "Look, as Caroline likes to remind me...Claire and Stefan are in this mess because I bit Damon. You know how close she is with Claire. I'll never be able to live it down." He laughed for a moment before looking up at the blonde teenager and smiling just a bit. "And...she's your sister. I guess I owe you one, too."

"Well, it's always nice to know I have a werewolf I can count on."

She shot him a bittersweet smile and he scoffed for a moment before asking, "Hey, have you heard from her today? Caroline?"

"No, actually. To be honest, I figured she was with you. Maybe she's with Elena or something."

"Yeah, maybe..." he trailed off before handing her phone back with the map pulled up. "Here. That's your best bet."

She looked down at her phone and saw the location, relieved. When she looked back up at the wolf, she smiled at him. "Thanks, Tyler."

"No problem."

"I'll text you if I hear from Caroline."

"Thanks," he said right as she lifted herself up from the booth and hurried over to Alaric, who had been waiting at the bar for her to get the information from the wolf. She realized that he would be slightly opposed to this, and therefore she had to phrase it in the nicest way possible.

"Did you get anything?" he asked her. She smiled mischievously.

"So...um...how opposed would you being to...oh, let's say...going on a hike with me in the Smoky Mountains?" For effect, she added her sweetest smile at the end of the rushed question and batted her eyes, but she had no such luck. The History teacher looked at her like she was insane.

"You want to hunt down a pack of werewolves on a full moon?"

"I know, I know! I suck at timing!" Amelia sighed, exasperated. "You don't have to come. I'll go alone, it's fine."

"No you won't." Amelia and Alaric both turned their heads to find Elena, who stormed up to them at the bar with intent written all over her face. She stopped at them and gave them both a sassy look. "I'm going with you."

Amelia and Alaric glanced at each other worriedly before Amelia turned back at looked at the brunette. "Elena, I don't think that's such a good idea..."

"I overheard you talking. I know Stefan, Klaus, and Claire are in the Smoky Mountains so if you don't take me, I'll just go myself, then." The mischievous teenager shrugged half-heartedly and waited as they tried to come up with a response.

"Elena, this is ridiculous!" Alaric exclaimed, exasperated. She threw her hands up.

"What? You were the one who told me I could handle things on my own now."

"Yeah, I-I meant like frozen dinners and SATs!" She stared at him disappointedly and waited for Alaric to realize what he was saying. They lived in a world full of vampires and werewolves, not normal human teenager things like frozen dinners and SATs. At last, he sighed heavily, giving in to another teenager yet again. "Alright...alright, fine. Let's just...let's just go..."

"Alaric!" Amelia exclaimed, spinning around to face him with an alarmed expression. He sighed again, still frustrated. She slapped his arm. "Damon will kill me if he finds out we're throwing her into the wild! Klaus doesn't know she's alive and he would prefer it to stay that way."

"Klaus won't know," Elena offered. Amelia frowned at her. "Come on, Amelia! Please? I need to find Stefan and Claire. I want to help."

After some thought, and much internal debate, Amelia couldn't help herself. She knew how much Elena wanted to find Stefan and Claire, and she couldn't deny her of that. Besides, they could use the help.

"...Okay. Okay, fine." She looked back and forth between Elena and Alaric. "But _no one _is to tell Damon about any of this! He will literally burn me alive if he finds out."

Elena agreed wholeheartedly and Alaric just threw some money down on the bar to pay for his drink and shouted as they began to leave the Grill, "But I'm not driving!"

* * *

"It's fascinating, actually," Klaus admitted as he looked at the werewolves around him with a gleam in his eye, positioned in such a dramatic way that they were all forced to watch his theatrics. "A werewolf who isn't beholden to the moon...a vampire who doesn't burn in the sun...a true hybrid."

Right as he finished his tidbit of theatre, there was a loud inhale on the forest floor. Ray's back arched as he gasped to life, his eyes wide and his mouth dry, craving a special something that would complete the first transition of a new species. Klaus straightened with a smile.

"Excellent timing, Ray. Very dramatic!"

"What's happening to me?" the transitioning werewolf choked out as he rolled over on his stomach, desperate to ease the itch in his throat. Klaus turned to the bronze-haired vampire at his beckon.

"Stefan?"

Stefan gave a sour smile and looked around before standing up, shouting clearly, "Are any of you human? Your friend here...he needs human blood to complete his transition to vampire. If he doesn't get it, he will die."

"It doesn't take much. Just a sip," Klaus added as he stood from the rock he was sitting on and stalked around, surveying the prospects. As he looked around, he propositioned, "Anyone? A boyfriend, a girlfriend along for the ride?"

It was deathly silent around the pack, no one moving a muscle to indicate to Klaus there was a human amongst them. But, of course, being a vampire, Klaus could hear the human blood pulsing through someone's veins, and at last, he turned and stared at the man who was standing beside the dark-haired woman who had expressed concern for the werewolf they had killed.

"You." Klaus watched the human as his eyes widened upon realizing he was caught. But before he or anyone else could have a chance to react, Klaus flashed forward and bit into the human's arm, causing him to scream aloud in pain. When the would was open and blood spilled out, Klaus quickly tossed the man over to Stefan, who caught him and threw him to the ground, his wound exposed right in front of Ray.

"No!" the dark-haired woman shouted and moved towards Klaus.

"Clarissa..." Klaus demanded as he caught the dark-haired woman who tried to attack him and held her at arm's length. The blonde flashed over to him and restrained the werewolf as Klaus sadistically enjoying the screams from the pretty werewolf's throat. All the while, Stefan tempted Ray with the blood before him.

"If you don't drink it, Ray, I will. Problem is, I don't know how to stop..."

"It's the new order, sweetheart," the hybrid told the struggling werewolves in Clarissa's iron-clad grasp. He looked at the woman seriously. "You join us, or you die."

"I'd rather die than become a vampire!" she snarled.

"Wrong choice."

Claire watched as Klaus's face transitioned into a monster's, one half-vampire and half-werewolf as he bit into his wrist and shoved the blood into the woman's mouth. When he was finished force-feeding her the blood from his system, Clarissa shoved the woman's body to Klaus, who instantaneously snapped the werewolf's neck so that she fell limp and onto the floor, dead. For a moment, Claire watched as Klaus gave her a curious look, but then just snickered.

"She'll thank me for that later," he determined before bringing up his hand to wipe off a bit of blood on his lip with his bloody hand. He looked around the forest to all the other werewolves and smiled, his golden eyes sparkling in the daylight. "Okay! Who's next?"

* * *

Alaric, Amelia, and Elena all trudged through the forest one by one, Alaric leading them, Elena following whilst fiddling with her backpack, and Amelia last looking around to make sure there weren't any lurkers around. As they rounded a small cliff of the trail that overlooked the water, he pointed up to the other side of the mountain.

"In a couple hours, the full moon's gonna rise just above that ridge. If Tyler's right, that's where the pack will be!" he announced. Elena smiled.

"You were a boy scout, weren't you?"

"Shut up..."

She chuckled. "Boy scout-slash-vampire slayer?"

"Slash whiskey-drinking all-around lost cause."

As she laughed at his pessimism, Alaric came to a stop at a rock, where he set his bag down and opened it up to reveal his stash of weapons to use in their sticky situation. Amelia paused at the tree by the water and scoffed at Alaric.

"You should open a store with all those," she suggested, making herself smile. "Like...a vampire hunting store or something. You know, black market stuff? You could make a fortune."

Alaric looked back at her with a scowl, but it only made her laugh more. He shook his head and turned back to his bag, where he pulled out a jar full of liquid and herbs. He reached up to hand it to Elena.

"Here. Put that in your bag."

"Vervain grenade?"

"Wolfsbane." She nodded.

"Well, since we're exchanging gifts..." Elena pulled out John Gilbert's ring from her back and extended it to Alaric, who just stared down at the ring blankly. He then looked up at her.

"That's John Gilbert's ring."

The human shifted. "It was yours once. Go ahead. Take it, it'll protect you from whatever supernatural danger we're about to get ourselves into."

Alaric was hesitant, and for good reason, too. "He gave it to you."

"Yeah, but I'm a doppelgänger. It's not gonna work on me. He left it for if I ever have kids."

"Yeah, well, then why don't you save it for future generations of stubborn, relentless baby Gilberts?"

Elena sighed. "Okay, well how about you borrow it until after we survive this? I'd feel bad if I got you killed before happy hour..."

Seeing Elena's smile, Alaric couldn't help but chuckle at her judgey joke and watched as she waited patiently for him to take the ring, obviously not taking no for an answer. She urged him to take it again, and so he reached forward and grabbed the ring graciously to protect him from death by supernatural hand. Elena nodded with a look of relief on her face while Alaric turned around to his backpack. While the teenager took a sip out of her drink, Amelia turned around at the lake and smiled.

"I always liked the mountains. I don't know why, there's just something so—"

Just like that, Amelia realized there was something off and spun around, only to have her face kicked in so hard that she was knocked a few feet away, flying into the water below them. When she hit the water, she struggled to stand for a moment or two on impact, an angered gasp escaping her lips. The water cleared from her eyes and she looked up to find Damon with a sadistic smile on his face.

"You little bitchass!" she shouted at him, but he just smiled wider.

Elena, who was standing a few feet beside him, shocked, widened her eyes and demanded, "Damon! How are you even here?"

Damon shrugged and turned back at Alaric with a grin. "Thanks for the tip, brother."

Amelia inhaled dramatically. "Van Helsing! You promised!"

"You think I'd let the three of us come to a mountain range full of werewolves on a full moon _without _backup?" he shouted down towards her incredulously, but she was too hurt by his betrayal to respond. A few moments passed before Damon jerked his head back.

"Get out of the water, Blondie."

Amelia crossed her arms defiantly and huffed. "Nope. I'm comfortable right here. Because I'm not leaving this mountain until I get my sister and my boyfriend back and so help me God, Damon, if you get in the way of that again, I will never forgive you."

Damon scoffed. "Is that supposed to imply that I care?"

"You should!"

"Yeah, well, I don't. Get out of the water. We're leaving. Stop being an idiot!"

_"You _stop being an idiot!"

"Right now, you're both acting like idiots!" Alaric shouted at them both, tired of the childish back and forth. Elena crossed her arms and went right up to Alaric with a disapproving shake of her head.

"I can't believe you! How could you do this to us? You knew Damon wouldn't approve."

"Elena, it's not safe for us out here."

"It doesn't matter!"

"Yes it does, Elena," Damon retorted without turning his head to look at her. His eyes refocused on Amelia. "Now get out of the goddamn water, Amelia!"

But she stood her ground, still the defiant child. "I'm not going anywhere with you, Damon. Why do you even care? You gave up on Claire, anyways."

"I didn't give up on her! I faced reality. Out of the water."

Now it was pissing her off. She widened her eyes and used her hands to gesture: "N. O!"

Which, in turn, only made him mad enough to blow up at her face while making his way down the small cliff to join her.

"What's your genius plan this time, Amelia? Huh? You gonna walk into a campsite full of werewolves, roast a marshmallow, and wait for Stefan and Claire to stop by?!" he demanded, trudging through the water so fast that he was at her side within seconds, spitting his protests in her face.

"My plan is to find them, help them, and bring them home! Damon, this is our chance to get them back, don't you see?! We can't go home, not when we're this close!" she begged.

"Klaus thinks Elena died when he broke the curse. That makes her safe. You want him to find out that she's not dead? This is not safe!"

"Then take her home! I wanted to do this alone, anyways!"

"I'm not going home!" Elena informed them, shouting from the cliff above. Damon turned around sharply.

"Stay out of this Elena!" He returned back to Amelia and snarled, "It's a full moon tonight, Amelia."

"I understand astronomy! I know what it means!" the blonde snapped. He scowled. "Damon, I can't leave like this. We have to find them before then, we have to. Please. I want to bring my sister home. _Please_. I want to bring your brother home! Just _please _let me do this!"

Damon watched her, the desperation in her eyes wanting to find her family. He realized, very quickly, that no matter how he felt about what Stefan did to Andie or how Claire hid their pregnancy from him for a century, he still loved them both, and he wanted to find them just as much as Amelia did. Besides, there was no turning back now.

"Okay..." he agreed, and she erupted in a smile. "Okay! Fine. But we are out of here before the moon is full and I become werewolf bait."

"Great."

"Because the last thing I need is to hallucinate about 1864 again."

"Okay, okay! I get it."

"Good."

With that said, he stormed out of the water and Amelia followed him with a triumphant smile.

* * *

"There." Klaus removed his wrist from the human's mouth and stared the male in the eye with his compulsion flowing freely. "Good as new. Now you relax, okay mate? We're gonna need you when the rest of them wake up."

Klaus lifted himself from the ground—the ground soaked in the blood of the pack of werewolves that were all lying dead, waiting to be woken for transition. Klaus walked over to Claire and Stefan, who were keeping Ray company as the transitional vampire was shaking back and forth in disbelief at the sight of his friends.

"They're dead," the new hybrid whispered. "They're all dead."

Klaus cocked his head to examine him, but shrugged. "Well, he's through his transition. He should be feeling better soon."

Ray choked on his tears, still holding his body as if he were afraid of falling apart. Stefan lifted himself from the tree he was propped on and walked forward.

"So is this your master plan? Build an army of hybrid slaves?"

"No, not slaves. Soldiers, comrades."

"For what war, might I ask?"

"Oh, you don't arm yourself after war has been declared, Stefan. You build your army _so_ big that no one ever dares pick the fight."

Stefan shrugged lightly. "What makes you so sure that they'll be loyal?"

"Well, it's not difficult to be loyal when you're on the winning team. That's something you'll learn once you shake that horribly depressive chip off your shoulder. You should be more like Clarissa."

Claire, who was too preoccupied watching Ray as he blubbered oddly, muttered, "Again, I still loathe you."

"Loathe is just a word, Clarissa."

"No, it is also a feeling...which I have of you." She looked up at him. "Would despise be a better word or...?"

Klaus chuckled to himself. "You only think you despise me, love, but truth be told, there's much more than—"

"Okay, there is something wrong with him!" Claire interrupted the hybrid as she grabbed Ray's face and tilted it up to see the blood that spilled out of his tear ducts. With his oversensitive emotions and the odd blood crying, she knew that it was not normal and that there was a flaw. Klaus immediately sat down on the other side of Ray and did the same, examining the strangeness that was going on with his eyes. Stefan, too, was confounded at the behavior of the hybrid.

"Huh." Stefan looked over at the Original. "That shouldn't be happening, should it?"

"Well, obviously." He lifted himself from the log-bench and started to pace.

Ray, who knew that there was something wrong with him, only began to shake more, the blood spilling easier from his eyes. "You said it was gonna feel better. Why doesn't it feel better?"

He looked at Klaus for an explanation, but there was none. Stefan found it too easy to mock the situation, and the cards just fell right into his hands.

"Some master race."

"Lose the attitude." After Klaus's sour demand, there was a hard gasp beside them, where the woman they had first turned from the pack they had visited woke up, shooting upright as she gasped to life. Klaus, still extremely weary of the situation based on Ray's reaction, decided to continue with his experiments. "Derek, come feed your girlfriend."

The human stood up onto his feet and Klaus took his arm, but right as he was about to bend down and bite a fresh wound, there was a whoosh, and Stefan, Claire, and Klaus watched as Ray took off into the forest like a wild animal, jumping over rocks quickly as he escaped the clutches of the vampires. Stefan turned back to Klaus, who gestured forward.

"Go get him."

Stefan reluctantly went after the wolf. Claire, worried about the hybrid up against Stefan, decided to follow him while Klaus dealt with the waking werewolves. She flashed into the fight just as Ray bit Stefan in the arm, causing her shout in protest. She attempted to detain the off-the-rails hybrid, but he was gone too quickly, and Stefan was left on his knee groaning at the bite mark on his arm.

"Stefan!" Claire shouted as she dove onto the ground and grabbed his arm to look at the wound. He bit back the pain and, though rough breaths, assured her he was fine.

"It's fine. Klaus will heal me."

"He better," she snarled.

"Where'd Ray go?"

"The other direction. We've got to find him."

"Come on," Stefan urged her, getting them both up onto their feet. As they moved to find the wolf, they stopped cold upon hearing four familiar voices through the woods.

_"How you doing?" _

_"Oh, get a life." _

_"I'm just saying, Amelia. Who decides to wear the ugliest three-inch boots on a hike? I know you're a vampire, Blondie, but it's still not practical." _

_"I happen to think they're cute." _

_"See, Damon! At least someone appreciates fashion. Thank you, Elena."_

_"Oh, she's just sucking up to you. Don't let it get to your head." _

_"Like you never kiss ass_—_"_

_"Stop it! What are you guys, twelve?"_

_"Stay out of this, Van Helsing, I'm still pissed at you!" _

"Is that...?" Claire trailed off as she and Stefan walked over to a cliff towards where they heard the voices, only to see Damon, Amelia, Elena, and Alaric all dragging themselves up the hill onto the ridge. Claire's breath caught and Stefan stood still, not saying a word. They both didn't speak, but there was a sound behind them that threw them both off guard.

Klaus stood towards the edge of the cliff, almost able to see the bandwagon from Mystic Falls. "Where did he go?"

"He uh, he got away." Stefan rushed forward and walked onto the other side of Klaus to distract him from the edge of the mountain. Claire, as well, did the same. "Forget him. Let's go—"

Klaus caught Stefan's arm and forced him back, where he saw the wound growing on his arm. He let out a hiss.

"A fatal werewolf bite." The hybrid smiled. "Ouch."

"Heal him, Klaus," Claire demanded. He looked over at her with a cocked eyebrow, and so she crossed her arms and said sourly, "_Please_?"

Klaus inhaled deeply, pondering it for a moment before finally pointing at her as if initiating a challenge. "You know, Clarissa, I'll tell you what...since Stefan is out of commission right now because of this nasty little wound, how about you find Ray and _then _I'll heal him."

Stefan scoffed for her. "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm dead serious. Excuse the pun." He looked at Claire. "You better hurry. Like I said, that bite looks nasty."

"Klaus—"

"Come with me, Stefan!" Klaus ordered as he walked away from Claire, never bothering to hear her out. Stefan looked at Claire with wide eyes, but there was nothing they could do about it. Stefan, obligated to accompany Klaus back to the werewolves, was forced to leave Claire behind to find Ray and bring him back before he was dead.

* * *

The sun set over the mountains after a while, creating a pinkish colored sky in the distance. Alaric turned back to Amelia, Elena, and Damon, who were following closely behind him, to give them an update.

"We've got about a mile left."

Damon looked up at the sky and pursed his lips cautiously. "The sun's about to set."

Elena sighed. "We can see that, Damon."

"I'm just saying..."

"The moon doesn't reach its apex for a while. We have time."

Damon, Amelia, Alaric, and Elena all moved cautiously though the leafy bushes, on the lookout for anything abnormal that might pop out of them. Alaric, who already had a crossbow in his hand ready to pounce, looked around as a weary feeling washed over him. Sure enough, there was a figure that moved in the bushes, creating a rustle loud enough for them to hear. Immediately, Alaric pointed and they all watched as a man, his shirt soaked in blood stumbling around as if he were lost came out into view. He had blood dripping down his face, but didn't seem to know what was going on.

"Stay where you are!" Alaric demanded of the intruder as the bleeding, lost man just came to a slow in front of them all, calm as ever. And then, like something suddenly snapped in him, he looked up and saw Damon and Amelia both looking him up and down, assessing the threat, and realized what they were.

"Vampires."

In a flash, the bleeding man was about ready to grab Amelia, but Damon stepped in and struggled with the wolf instead. He managed to grab the man by his throat, but the abnormally strong supernatural being had him pinned to the tree a few feet ahead. Alaric triggered his crossbow, the arrow landing in the man's back, but it didn't seem to do anything but hurt him for a moment. Elena quickly threw down her backpack, zipped it open, and pulled out the jar of wolfsbane Alaric had given her.

"Damon!" she shouted as she pulled out the pin in the jar and tossed it, where the vampire caught it mid-air and it blasted all over the werewolf, who screamed aloud in immense agony, his face burning so badly that he released Damon from his grasp and fell to the floor, weak. As he struggled to get up and recoil, Damon walked forward and kicked him over, knocking the wolf unconscious. The four of them breathed heavily as Alaric said what they all were thinking.

"Let me guess. Hybrid?"

"No, Damon just needs to brush up on his strength routine." Amelia scoffed and reached into her bag to pull out a few feet of rope and chain. "Here, come on. Let's tie this bastard up."

Damon and Amelia grabbed the hybrid in front of them as Alaric and Elena started to soak the ropes and chains with vervain. They could see the hybrid beginning to stir as they chained him up, but luckily for them, he wasn't fully conscious. Damon shook his head.

"These ropes aren't gonna hold him much longer, what else do we have?"

"Ric, here, take these." Elena extended the ropes in her hand to Ric, but instead of the human who took them, Damon reached out behind him and grabbed what Elena was giving to him, but was instantly burned with the vervain on the ropes.

"OW!"

"I said Ric!" Elena defended herself. Damon moved away from the hybrid and Alaric took the ropes and tied them around the hybrid on the tree with a sigh.

"Alright, that's the last of the vervain. We don't have enough stuff to hold him." He looked up. "I don't think we're gonna make that ridge before the full moon."

Elena stepped forward. "If we can get him to talk, we don't have to."

In an attempt to wake the unconscious hybrid before them, the human teenager bravely stepped up and reached out cautiously to the supernatural being's face. Right as she was about to touch his face, the hybrid awoke with a start, causing Elena to jump back in defense. But the hybrid did not move—instead, they watched as he craned his neck and began to suddenly shout aloud, thrashing back and forth against the ropes. Damon's eyes narrowed.

"Is he turning?"

"That's impossible! It's still daylight," Elena hissed.

"Tell him that..." Alaric muttered as they watched the hybrid and listened to his agonic screams. Damon reached out and grabbed the hybrid's shoulders to delay the transition, but it wasn't working. Amelia's eyes widened.

"My plan did not account for werewolves out in the open before the moon is full!"

"You know, those ropes aren't gonna hold a wolf," Alaric announced. Damon, still gripping onto the hybrid's shoulders, jumped back as the wolf tried to bite him in the midst of his screams. Amelia looked around, desperately debating with herself. But she realized that it wasn't worth it. They couldn't risk the consequences.

"Damon, leave him!" she demanded and looked to Alaric and Elena. "We need to get out of here. Now."

"But Amelia—" Elena started. She shook her head.

"Elena, we don't have time for this! Let's go!" Alaric grabbed Elena's arm and they both sprinted out while Amelia walked forward and pushed Damon off the wolf. "Damon! Let's go, let's go!"

Reluctantly, the dark-haired Salvatore released the hybrid and, along with Amelia, flashed away to keep up with Elena and Alaric, all the while hearing the loud, painful screams of the transitioning hybrid behind them. As they ran and ran farther down the mountain back to the car, the sun set and nightfall came upon them, limiting the vision of the humans with the vampires. As a result, Elena, the clumsiest of the four, tripped over a tree branch at her feet, causing them all to stop and look at her, only to find something much more terrifying.

"Don't move!" Damon shouted at her, and the human froze. Slowly, her eyes lifted to find a wolf, eyes glowing yellow with hunger, staring at her in the face. She gasped and tried not to move, but inevitably, she was so frightened, her breath quickened. In a desperate attempt to distract the wolf, Damon came up with a plan. "Here, doggie, doggie!"

The wolf looked up at the vampire and he took off in an instant, the werewolf close behind. Elena quickly rose herself from the ground and brushed herself off. Alaric urged Elena and Amelia to come with him, but Amelia shook her head.

"Damon's still out there!"

"He can handle himself."

"I have to help him!"

"No, you need to help us, Amelia, now come on!" Alaric pushed her forward and grabbed Elena's hand. "Let's move. Now!"

Amelia knew he was right—if there was another wolf out there on the loose, she would have to help Alaric and Elena from it because she was the strongest of them all. She couldn't leave her friends like that, but at the same token, what about Damon? Regardless, she didn't have much of a choice as Alaric and Elena took off and she was forced along with them, finally retreating.

While the three of his bandwagon retreated from the stupid mission they had decided to go on in the first place, Damon found himself in the midst of a dark forest with no sound, which only made things worse. He had finally slowed, looking around carefully to spot the wolf who had followed him. He could hear a twig snap and turned around sharply, but no one was there. And then, out of the dark, he watched as a half-man, half-wolf jumped out and threw him back onto the ground with a hiss. Damon recoiled quickly and swung a punch at the animal, then dodged his rebuttal. After minutes of fighting, the half-man, half-wolf drew out a new trick, launching himself over Damon onto the other side in a cat-like move. Damon was surprised, and slightly impressed, but in the next moment, the hybrid was on top of him, desperate to chomp onto his neck like he was his next meal. Damon fought hard to restrain the hybrid from getting to him, but he had to admit that the freak was stronger than a regular werewolf and stronger than a regular vampire. He could feel himself start to slip, but that was when the wolf suddenly hissed and fell limp, dropping to the ground heavily.

And there she was, her golden hair sparkling in the moonlight as the heart of the hybrid melted in her hand, blood dripping onto her elbow. She stood before him, a hard look in her eye before she tossed the heart onto the ground and took a deep breath.

"You," she said slowly, as if restraining herself, "were supposed to stay away from us."

"Claire," Damon whispered, as if he were seeing a dream. She stared at him, but it was colder than the way she looked at him before, but still not quite detached enough. He watched her as she stiffened.

"Damon, you need to leave. Now." He watched as she bit her cheek, grimacing at him. "I don't want to see you. I told Stefan to tell you that. What don't you understand?"

"Why you wouldn't tell me yourself. Besides, blame your sister and her doppelgänger sidekick," he retorted sharply. "I had nothing to do with this."

"Well I'm telling you myself now. I don't want to see you, Damon. Go." She turned her cheek. "And tell them to stop looking too, okay? We don't need to be saved."

Though he was so thrilled to see her, he couldn't help the sourness from his mouth. "You want them to stop chasing you? Tell your best friend to stop with the late-night phone calls. Really messed with their heads."

She shook her head. "He didn't call anyone."

"Sure he did!" Damon shrugged. "They're not gonna give up on you two. Just face it."

"They have to! You have to." Claire raised a sigh deep in her chest and shook her head slowly. "We're never coming back. So please...just leave. Get out of here." But he could see the pain in her eyes—the little glimmer of sadness that shone through them. It was like she didn't want to look at him, she just kept looking beyond like he was invisible to her. Damon hesitantly stepped forward, but she watched him and stepped back with a violent and rigorous protest. "Don't. Don't, please. Leave."

"Clarissa—"

"Damon, go!" she snapped. It wasn't that she didn't want to touch him. She ached to do it, she ached just to touch him, even for just a second. But she knew that, if she did touch him, she would start right back where she was at the beginning of the summer—speechless for days without knowing what to do. She would want yet again to get herself killed in a sparring match with Klaus because she wanted to escape his clutches. None of those thoughts, she realized, would get her back to Damon within the next century. It was better a century than never.

Damon stared at the woman who refused to look him in the eye, her cheek turned, patiently waiting for him to leave her presence. At last, when she looked up, he was gone in an instant, and she just stood above Ray's body, fighting back the tears that threatened at her eyes.

* * *

"Damon!" Amelia shouted as she quit her incessant pacing in front of the car Alaric and Elena had parked on the side of the mountain. She flashed up to him as he walked towards the rest of his bandwagon, looking as if he were hit by a train. Her eyes widened. "Are you okay? Are you alright? Did you get—"

"Fine. Bite-free. Let's go."

"Hey! Quit being a jerk, I'm just concerned about you!" she snapped. He crossed his arms at her.

"Okay...be concerned, but be concerned in the car." He brushed past her and looked up at Alaric, who had stepped out of the car with Elena, both wanting to see him fine and healthy. "Hey, Ric, did you happen to see where I parked my car?"

"You're so unbelievable!" Amelia snapped at him as she stormed back to Alaric's SUV. "You know what, from now on, I'm just not gonna be concerned about you. Ever."

"Fine by me." He shrugged. All the while, Stefan, who had managed to break away from Klaus for a few moments, stepped out onto the edge of a cliff and watched as the four argued, Damon and Amelia like brother and sister and Elena trying to intervene like she was the youngest child. When they were finally in the car, Amelia sighed and rubbed her head, having had a headache after the day's events. But up in the corner of her eye, she saw a figure and gasped, straightening in her seat as she blinked to focus on who it was.

Of course, whoever it was, their figure was gone and nowhere to be seen. But she had a feeling she knew exactly who was watching them.

* * *

Claire finally returned to the wolf camp, dragging Ray behind her like he was a broken toy. She stumbled upon Klaus, who was sitting down on a log with two bottles of open beer, looking solemn and pissy as ever. Stefan was in the corner, standing against a tree without a word, memorizing what he had seen down on that cliff, holding onto it like it was his last hope. Upon Claire's arrival, Klaus looked up at her while she tossed her hair with her bloody hand.

"Well, well." She looked around the camp at all the dead werewolves. Pursing her lips, she looked over at Klaus with a pout. "Guessing it didn't work out too well?"

"They went rabid," he told her, as if she really cared. "Some of them, I killed. The others just...bled out." He lifted himself from the log and walked over to Claire, where he saw Ray's dead body. "In the end...they're all dead."

And then, in a sudden burst of outrage, Klaus spun around with a sharp yell that could be heard from miles away, throwing his beer bottle across camp so that it shattered somewhere nearby. He yelled again, as frustrated as ever.

"I did everything I was told! I should be able to turn them! I broke the curse! I killed a werewolf." He looked at Claire. "You're not dead, but I killed your vampirism. Your husband's spell only transferred his to you, but _your _vampirism is dead. And I killed the doppelgänger!"

Claire tried not to move, because she knew the truth. Elena was not dead. The elixir brought her back to life, which meant that nothing of her had died, not her humanity nor anything else, she had merely restored. Stefan knew the same, but he didn't dare say anything, either. At last, Klaus looked up at Claire, his face stoic.

"You look like hell."

She scowled. "Heal Stefan. I brought Ray back."

Klaus looked down at the ground. "You brought Ray back dead."

"Yeah, well, I had to kill him. He attacked me. It was the only way to get him to stop but Klaus, so help me God—" She stepped forward and pointed a stern finger at him. "If you don't heal my friend, I will leave. Now."

"You don't get to make that deal with me, love," the hybrid snarled. "I saved your precious Damon. I saved him and you, in turn, promised me your company. You do not get the choice to walk away!"

With his sharp words, Claire shrunk and did not say anything more in fear of being berated yet again. At last, Klaus turned on his heel and walked over to the log he had been sitting on, grabbed one of his beer bottles and looked between Claire and Stefan cautiously. Then, with a swift movement, he reached up and bit into his wrist and let the blood spill from his hand into the bottle. He walked over to Stefan and nodded.

"Bottoms up." Stefan took the bottle from his hand and watched as Klaus turned around to look at the defiant blonde a few feet away. "We're leaving, Clarissa. I suggest you lose the attitude before then."

Klaus turned on his heel and took off, leaving Stefan and Clarissa behind in the camp full of dead werewolves to clean up his mess. Claire watched as Stefan walked forward to her and drank the blood, healing his bite immediately, and as he stopped in front of her and threw the bottle on the ground, the both of them looked at each other, and she couldn't help it anymore. Stefan reached forward and pulled her into his arms to console her as she cried for just a moment, all of her emotions flooding back after seeing Damon after three months. The two stood there for a while before they had to pick themselves up and move on yet again.

* * *

Amelia stepped out of Stefan's bathroom, ready to sleep the day's hard work off, when she saw Damon lying on her bed looking at the picture of Stefan and Claire on Founder's Day. She noticed him and his calm self, surprisingly without a glass of bourbon.

"I was wrong," he told her, not bothering to look up from the picture. Amelia cocked an eyebrow.

"No! Alert the press! Damon Salvatore was wrong?!" Damon scowled, and she gasped. "Oops. Sorry. Totally insensitive joke considering..." He turned back to the picture and she climbed onto the bed, lying down onto the pillow despite her wet hair. "And what would I suppose you were wrong about?"

"There is hope for her. For both of them." Damon set down the picture onto the nightstand and sighed. "I thought Stefan was gone, too, but I was wrong."

Amelia lifted herself onto her elbows and stared at him. "You saw him? How was he? Is he okay—?"

"No, Amelia. I did not see Stefan." Damon frowned. "I saw Claire."

"And?"

"And...she tried to convince me that she didn't care anymore. She tried to convince me that she didn't want to see me anymore. But I can tell when she's lying, Amelia, and she was. And she was lying for Stefan, too."

Amelia paused and watched him as he contemplated his words and pursed his lips, as if remembering her presence and trying to get it to pause there for the rest of the night.

Quietly, she began, "I know this whole situation sucks. I know you want answers about what Claire told you before she left, and I'm sure you'll get them soon. We'll get them back, Damon. We have to."

Damon turned his head and looked into Amelia's green eyes with a small smile. "Thanks for being _so _concerned about me that you abandoned your rogue mission to find them, help them, and bring them home."

"It would be a crying shame if you died before you told me where your secret stash of bourbon is." She rolled her eyes. "Of course I worry about you, you idiot. You're my brother. I can't let my brother die."

He shuddered. "I am not your brother. If I were your brother, I would be Claire's brother...and that would be extremely wrong."

"It's a figure of speech, dumbass. Plus, we're not even blood related."

"Good. Because no brother and sister should do what we have done in the past."

"Ew! Damon, TMI. Too much information." She fake-gagged as she laid down beside him and yawned. "Man, I'm extremely tired. Too tired to be a vampire."

"That's because you're a freak. Goodnight, Amelia."

He lifted himself from his brother's bed and she turned out out the lights and shouted back to him, "Goodnight, Damon. I'll see you in the morning."

She turned on her side with her hands tucked under her head and waited for Damon to close the door, but as he did, she heard him hiss, "Hey! No sex dreams about my brother."

"Damon!" she shouted, lifting a pillow from beside her and throwing it at the door. He chuckled as he left the room and she laughed for a few moments before finally lying down and getting a good night's rest.

* * *

**Finally finished this chapter! Had this in the works for about a month and a half but never really got around to finish it, and of course now I'm doing it when I should really be studying for finals :P Oh, well. Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**grapejuice101: **Oh, he's definitely starting something. It'll be even better/worse in the next chapter :) Thanks for the review!

**RHatch89: **Thank you! :)

**NicoleR85: **Thanks! Sorry this one took a while. Hope you enjoyed it!

**adela: **Thank you! Here it is! Sorry for the wait.

**Guest: **Yeah, me neither. But you know, when it's a situation as sticky as this one, he's gonna be mad for a little bit about it until they can really hash it out and have a conversation about what she did. Thanks for reviewing!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **He tried in this chapter lol but eventually they'll get there! Thanks for the review!

**Tvd2014: **It's gonna be a little delayed by some unfortunate event that will be happening in the next chapter, however they will end up talking about it in this season, and that secret will really be a major obstacle they may or may not get around going forward. Thanks for the review!

**klandgraf2007: **Yep, we're finally here! This is definitely gonna change everything in their relationship. I mean, Damon still loves her obviously and Claire clearly has some sort of feelings for him (enough to make her break down to Stefan after she saw Damon for the first time in three months in this chapter) but in the same token, this is something that he feels is important enough to stick their relationship on the line for. Stefan and Claire's friendship will develop a LOT over the next few chapters and even a lot during this season, though they're both gonna be pretty occupied with not screwing up their lives. Thanks for the review!

**FizzWizz2011: **Thanks! Here's the update! Sorry for the wait.

**Guest: **It wasn't so much as 'plot hanging', I sort of just imagined her as really not wanting to tell Claire and afraid that Katherine would act out if she did. Thanks for reviewing!

**Guest: **Katherine actually cared about Christopher the most (she repeatedly tells him and shows him that multiple times). Besides, it's not just the fact that Katherine "cared" about him the most, it was the fact that Claire looked like Tabitha who basically killed her own family because of Klaus's orders that made her really hate Claire. Even when she claimed it was about Damon, it was really just about the fact that Claire was a deep, dark reminder of her past _plus _the fact that she was taking everything of Katherine's. So in Katherine's mind (at least in this story) she could care less about what Elena does with Stefan, it's just the fact that she undeniably hates/is jealous of Claire. Thanks for the review!

**piper: **Interesting ideas! I'll see if I can fit them in anywhere or something but I don't know if I'll be able to keep all the Originals alive for the sake of cannon. Sorry for the wait on these chapters but thanks for the review!

**silusyne: **Here it is! Sorry for the wait. They'll be back soon! Thanks for the review.

**Kris: **Thanks! Here's the update.

**Kristie: **Thank you! Here's the update. Sorry for the wait!

**beth: **Sorry! Had a lot to do over the last few months, but here's the chapter!

**river: **Sorry! I was super busy over the past few months, but here's the chapter!

**heytay1: **Here it is! Sorry for the wait :)


	39. The End of the Affair

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**The End of the Affair**

It had only been a few days since Damon, Elena, Alaric, and Amelia had feebly attempted to track down Claire and Stefan in the woods, but they hadn't gotten anywhere closer to finding out where Klaus had taken them afterwards. Late at night, after Amelia had gone to bed and Damon was up all alone in the big, quiet Salvatore house, he poured himself a nightcap just to think for a moment. Of course, that was when he heard the annoying blaring sound of his phone going off, an unknown caller interrupting his peace.

"You're interrupting my drink," he stated grouchily. The woman on the phone giggled.

_"You miss me?" _

Damon's lips turned down into a frown as he recognized the voice over the line. "Katherine. Where are you?"

_"Lurking outside your window...pining away." _

"What do you want?"

_"I'm homesick. What have I missed?" _

"Well, Stefan and Claire are still Klaus' prisoners and Elena and Amelia still think they can save them and...no one's thought about you since you left."

_"And what about you? I'm sure now that you've realized that Clarissa could care about you less since she took off with Klaus and your brother, you've kept yourself busy with dozens of lucky ladies while gradually giving up on her?" _

Damon scoffed at the ridiculous (yet somewhat true) suggestion by his former love. To prove a point, he told her his version of the truth; but truth be told, if she'd asked Amelia the same thing, there would be a chance she would say something different. "I would never give up on Claire...or my brother, for that matter. I just don't know where they are."

_"Hmm..." _Katherine trailed off, as if biting back information she waited for him to realize she had. Damon's eyebrows knotted together as he frowned into the phone.

"But you do. Are you trailing them?"

_"A hybrid who wants me dead, his sidekick who's off the rails, and a bitch I can't stand? I couldn't be further away." _

Damon smiled and walked over to the couch with the glass of bourbon steady in his hand. "Which means you know exactly where they are."

_"All I know is that Klaus pitched a fit when his hybrids didn't work. Now he's looking for some answers." _

"How do you know that?"

_"Spend 500 years running, and there'll be a few people along the way that are looking out for you." _

"Is that what you're doing?" Damon asked, slightly bitter in his tone of voice. "Looking out for my brother and my girlfriend?"

_"Whoa, whoa. Easy, tiger. Does Claire know she's your girlfriend yet? I think not." _He rolled his eyes and listened as Katherine sighed, almost too dramatically. _"And I'm conflicted. Now that Christopher's dead, I have no one to keep me company at night..." _

Damon cut her off, refusing to hear anymore. "Where are they?"

* * *

Klaus pushed open the door of the blacked-out SUV as it pulled into a warehouse, Stefan and Claire following right behind him. The three vampires stepped outside and, as Klaus shut the door, he looked at his two acquaintances.

"Welcome back to Chicago," he announced. Stefan looked around the abandoned warehouse with a grimace.

"What are we doing here?"

Klaus walked over to the door of the warehouse and opened it to reveal the bright city lights of the city that surrounded them as a whole. A truck pulled into the lot in front of the warehouse, carrying whatever it was he wanted to drag around with him. The hybrid smiled to himself.

"I know how much you two loved it here. Bringing back memories of the good old Ripper days."

Claire scoffed. "'Loved' would be a bit of a stretch. I don't remember much of it...which was sort of odd."

"I think we blocked out most of it, Claire," Stefan muttered to her as he looked around the lights of the city. "A lot of blood, a lot of partying. Both of us. The details are all a blur."

"Well, that is a crying shame." Klaus whispered dramatically. "The details are what makes it legend. Word was, the Ripper of Monterrey got lonely, so he escaped to the city for comfort. It was Prohibition, everything was off limits then...which made everything _so _much fun!"

Claire and Stefan shared a glance at each other and the two of them tried to remember what it was like back in that dark time of their lives.

* * *

_Prohibition rooms and tunnels spread like an epidemic through all major cities; Chicago amongst the most famous. Although the streets seemed bare and quiet, the life underground echoed with cheer and booze. After wiping his mouth clean of his dinner, his delectable 20-something flapper he left to rot in the car, Stefan trotted through the prohibition tunnel until he finally came upon his scene_—_the underground life that made his life simple. In the dimly lit room, he saw the women dancing on the floor to the sweet sound of the jazz voice singing softly through the speakers, the men taking shots at the bar, and couples gathering everywhere in the room as if they weren't seen. It was a glorious sight. _

_"Guess who my eyes have just spied, ladies!" the singer on the platform cooed as she stared right at Stefan. "Looking for a good time, Mr. Salvatore?" _

_"Save me a dance, Gloria!" Stefan called out as he descended the stairs down onto the dance floor. Right as he reached out to grab a glass of wine a waiter was bringing around, he felt it snatched right out of his hand and turned to see a beautiful pale blonde woman he had never before laid eyes on. He cocked an eyebrow. "Ooh, help yourself." _

_"Oh, I always do," she retorted with a smile. He cocked his head at her, a flirtatious gleam in his eye. He merely hummed to the tune of her voice before watching as she stepped forward, narrowing her eyes. "Careful, Mr. Salvatore..." the beautiful woman trailed off underneath her breath. She leaned forward, merely inches away from his lips, but instead of kissing him, turned her cheek to whisper in his ear, "You're still wearing your date. She's lovely." _

_Immediately, Stefan was taken off guard. The woman turned to leave, but he caught her arm gently and pulled her back, shaking his head. _

_"No, no, no. Who are you?" _

_Instead of answering, the beautiful and mysterious woman held a finger to her lips and walked away without giving him any satisfaction whatsoever. As Stefan stared after her, he felt someone brush his shoulder and, though he thought nothing of it, was snapped out of his trance as the anonymous person beside him held out a glass of wine._

_"Careful, Stefan," Clarissa warned him as she locked eyes with the Salvatore one moment and then looked off in the direction of the girl who had just captured his attention. "You have a strange look on you. Dare I say...a dangerous one." _

_He watched as Clarissa smiled, drank her wine, and descended into the heart of the party. _

* * *

"Chicago was magical," Klaus filled in, turning his head to look at Claire, who caught his gaze for a moment with a curious glance. Stefan was too preoccupied staring off into the lights to really notice.

"Yeah, well, I'll take your word for it. Like I said, I don't remember most of it."

Klaus watched as Stefan turned and walked inside, disregarding the city at his fingertips. With a frown, he shut the door.

"Down to business, then?"

"Why are we still with you?" Stefan inquired abruptly, crossing his arms over his chest as he and Claire stood against Klaus. "We had our fun, your hybrids failed, I mean don't you want to move on?"

Claire and Stefan knew what this was really about. Although Klaus was in the dark about what had happened after the ritual, they knew that there was a very distinct reason that the hybrids were not able to stay alive, and because of that, they wanted to deter Klaus for as long as they could. Hopefully it worked, but something in the back of their minds told them that Klaus's stubbornness and resourcefulness would eventually prevail. But they had to give themselves enough time to come up with a plan.

And of course, Klaus was relentless in his endeavors, as he announced, "We're going to see my favorite witch. If anyone can help us with our hybrid problem, it's her."

* * *

Amelia walked out of the shower, merely a towel wrapped around her body, singing the chorus of "Hey Soul Sister" by Train, which had been stuck in her head since she had woken up early in the morning. As she left the bathroom to change in her room, she quickly noticed Damon was standing at her dresser, rummaging through the drawers. Amelia gasped.

"Damon! What the hell are you doing in here? I was showering!"

He turned around and looked at her with a confused expression. "So...did you just decide to move into my brother's room without giving him a choice or is there a legitimate reason you can't stay in any of the other six rooms in this house, excluding mine and Claire's?"

She sighed frustratedly at him. "Did it ever occur to you that I miss Stefan so much that I just would like to be close to him, even if this is as close as I can get? Where's your sense of romanticism, huh? I know you have some."

Damon shrugged and inhaled sharply as he pulled a pair of bright pink, lacy underwear out of her top drawer. He spun around and held it up for Amelia to observe. "Amelia King! You dirty, dirty girl! You know, I don't think Saint Stefan likes hot pink all that much..."

"Give me those!" Amelia snapped as she flashed up to the childish vampire and put her underwear out of his sight. He snickered to himself and moved out of her way as she kept her back against the dresser and tapped her hand impatiently. "And what is the point of this incessant torture?"

"Pack a bag, Blondie." Damon winked at her. "We're going on a road trip."

"Why?"

"To bring our siblings home, of course."

Amelia's eyes widened. "Wait, what? You know where they are?"

He nodded. "Windy City."

"He's in Chicago?! How do you know this? Did Sheriff Forbes give you another lead?"

Damon opened his mouth to respond, but he thought about it for a moment before smiling and announcing, "It came to me in a dream. I was naked. Claire was naked. It was—"

"Bleh! Damon, stop!" She moved to cover her ears and shut her eyes while Damon smirked at her. When she didn't hear him continue, she opened her eyes and straightened with a sigh. "Is he okay?"

Damon shrugged. "Let's just say he's not there to meet Oprah. I'm serious though, Blondie. Chop, chop, let's move. I'm assuming you want to tell Elena about our little adventure?"

Amelia opened her mouth to say yes, but after a moment, he watched her shut it closed and noticed the contemplative look on her face. Her eyes lowered to the ground, almost ashamed that she was thinking of something else, and after a while, Damon laid a grin on his lips that stretched from ear to ear.

"Look at you, Blondie," he muttered as he walked out. "I think that's the first time I've seen you be truly selfish. Look at that. I'll be sure..._not _to tell Elena, then."

Amelia watched as he left the room, but she didn't protest to what he had decided. Running her tongue along her teeth, Amelia turned back to face herself in the mirror and she thought about it for a few seconds more before realizing that telling Elena would only cause more trouble. It would be best if she could just bring Stefan home and they could sort it out from there.

And, although she felt guilty, she pushed it away, held herself high, and did as Damon told her to. As a result, it was less than an hour that they were both speeding down the highway at the maximum speed of Damon's Camaro racing towards the Windy City. Most of the car ride was silent, that was until Damon reached behind him and pulled out an antique journal he had stolen from Stefan's collection earlier in the morning while he was rummaging Stefan's room.

"Read this," Damon instructed the vampire next to him. "Paints a pretty little picture of Stefan's first experience in Chicago."

Amelia scoffed down at the journal that Damon had passed to her. "You want me to read Stefan's diary?"

He shrugged. "It's the only way to prepare you to deal with him when we get there. You know, Stefan's a completely different person when he's on human blood. He's—"

"A Ripper. Yeah, I know. Damon, we're all controlled by the blood, it's what makes us who we are. I don't need to read his diary to know that." She shoved the journal back at him and turned her head, unaware that he had just taken it from her and opened up to a random page.

"Here's one," he quipped. She turned her neck to see him as he sighed and began to read, "March 12th, 1922. 'I've blacked out days. I wake up in strangers' blood in places I don't recognize with women I don't remember.'" Suddenly, Damon gasped. "I'm shocked! Stefan's not a virgin?"

Amelia scowled and reached forward to snatch the journal out of Damon's hands. "You know, you just fixed this car up after my sister crashed it before the ritual. I would hate for it to get smashed again because _you _were so focused on invading your brother's private thoughts."

Damon snickered. "And now you're judging my driving skills? Tsk, tsk! Well, I guess I'll just have to find some other way to keep me entertained. Tell me if you see a Florida plate."

But Amelia was barely listening. She looked down at the journal in her hand and couldn't help but read one of the lines, taking her back to Stefan's 1920s experience in Chicago.

* * *

"Looks familiar, doesn't it?"

Klaus waited and watched as Stefan and Claire both entered the bar and looked around. Stefan nodded as he recognized the venue he had spend most of his time in during the 20s, reflecting back on what little memories he had with immense nostalgia.

"I can't believe this place is still here," he admitted.

"Why can't I remember anything about the 20s?" Claire muttered, catching Klaus's attention from beside her. She didn't notice him, however, as he watched her while she strained herself thinking about it. "I never really thought about it before, but I really...I really _can't _remember most of it. Which doesn't make sense because...well, because I know I wasn't emotionless then, I had just joined Stefan because he convinced me to have a little fun. I was trying something new, that much I remember, but...but I forgot all the rest."

Klaus finally caught her gaze as she looked up at him and waited for an explanation, but he just shrugged, hiding a smile under his lips. "Maybe something will jog your memory, love."

Suddenly, a door swung open, and there was a voice behind them all.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Behind them, Gloria—the singer on the platform from way back when—stood before them with snow-colored hair but still looked as if she were 20. Klaus's smile spread like a contagion over his lips.

"So, a hybrid walks into a bar, says—"

"Stop! You may be invincible, but that doesn't make you funny." She walked forward and nodded at Stefan. "I remember you."

"Yeah." He knotted his eyebrows. "You're Gloria. Shouldn't you be old and dead?"

"Now if I die, who's gonna run this place, huh?"

Klaus leaned over to Stefan and whispered to explain, "Gloria's a very powerful witch."

"I can slow the aging down some...herbs and spells, but don't worry. It'll catch up to me one day."

"Stefan. Clarissa." The hybrid turned to his companions and nudged them towards the bar. "Why don't you two go fix us up a little something from behind the bar?"

Stefan was quiet for a moment before realizing he had no choice and nodded with a scoff. "Yeah, sure thing."

Klaus turned to Claire next, and she stared at him with incredulous eyes. "Do I look like your bartender, Klaus?"

"No. Perhaps you'll go get something for yourself, darling. Your bloodstream seems to be running low on tequila since our last liquor stop." She stared at him with stone-cold eyes before not-so-discreetly flipping him off and storming over to where Stefan was behind the bar. Klaus, meanwhile, sat down with Gloria to talk about what was happening with his hybrids, and Stefan and Claire discreetly listened in.

_"Obviously you did something wrong," _Gloria mentioned to the Original as they conversed. _"Look, every spell has a loophole. But a curse that old...we'd have to contact the witch that created it." _

_"That would be the Original Witch. She's very dead," _Klaus told her, almost proudly.

_"I know. And for me to contact her, I'll need help." _

While Claire continued listening in and pouring her shot at the same time, Stefan, who had been a good slave and was making a drink for himself _and _for Klaus, looked up to find something absolutely disturbing staring him right in the face. Suddenly, he could care less about the conversation between Gloria and Klaus the world as he knew it came to a devastating crumble.

"What is this?" Stefan demanded from behind the bar. Klaus did not seem surprised, but rather as if he'd waited for Stefan to ask.

"Well, I told you, Stefan." Klaus stood from his chair. "Chicago is a magical place."

"What?" After she downed her shot, Claire tossed the glass and turned to look over Stefan's shoulder at whatever he was holding in his hand. When she saw what it was, her eyes widened and she felt as if everything she knew just...suddenly didn't make sense.

"But this is me...with you."

Stefan looked up at the hybrid and shook his head as he extended the picture, which was old, crumpled, but clear as day—Stefan and Klaus in a friendly embraced, posing as they sat at Gloria's bar waiting for the picture to be taken to hold the moment forever.

* * *

"Katherine and I were in Australia during the 1920s," Amelia remembered as she and Damon approached Stefan's apartment. "So I don't know much about what it was like in the states during prohibition and everything, but I gotta say...this is a pretty shitty place to live for someone with Stefan's lifestyle."

Damon shrugged. "There used to be an all-girls high school around the corner but it shut down for attendance issues."

"Is that supposed to make me want to run under my bed covers and cry to my dead mommy? Because my boyfriend murdered a bunch of high school teenagers?" Amelia prompted him. Damon smiled.

"Come on, Blondie. You know I love pushing your buttons."

"Yeah, only because Claire's not around! God, you know, one of the reasons I'm fighting so hard to get her back is so I don't have to deal with you _picking _on me all the time! I should give her more credit. I would hate to be her."

Before he responded, he pulled off the doorknob on the locked apartment door to let them inside the dusty, untouched apartment. "Yeah, but then again, think about the benefits."

"Ew. Is your mind always in the gutter?"

"All day, every day." Instead of walking around in the parlor, Damon went straight to the wall beside the fridge lined with food that, if he were apt to guess, was probably only a few decades younger than he was, give or take. Feeling around the edges, he found the latch that opened the fake wall into a door that led to a smaller room, and Amelia raised her eyebrows at it in curiosity.

"What is this?" she asked. He nudged her inside, but all she noticed was the booze on the wall, typical for the prohibition era. But without saying anything about it, she walked into the secret room with Damon and looked around, finally noticing what he was pointing her towards. It was a wall with a list of names scribbled down in Stefan's handwriting.

"A list of names," he told her as she stared at the wall. "More specifically, Stefan's victims. All of them, starting with our father. Of course, I'm sure his recent endeavors haven't made the roster."

She sighed. "I had no idea he tortured himself so badly."

Damon nodded as he left the small room and sighed to himself. "That's Stefan, you know? Even when he's emotionless, he still feels guilt. It's the damnedest thing."

Amelia looked at the list for a few more seconds before leaving the secret room and eyeing the dark-haired Salvatore brother. "So what'd you do in the 20s? Claire said she was with Stefan and, I'm assuming at some point before the decade ended, he left her here and you swooped in and...well, we both know what happened after that."

Damon smirked to himself, but didn't elaborate. "I was around. Chicago's a big city. Stefan was a cocky Ripper douche, but I could avoid him and still...indulge in a few Daisy Buchanans of my own."

"Never liked her character," she confessed and watched as Damon turned to leave the apartment. With her eyebrows raised, she asked, "Wait, where are we going?"

"His old stomping ground." Damon turned around as he reached the door and shook his head. "And you're not coming with me. While I go and try to find them, I need you to stay here and brainstorm some plans. We need to get this done as fast as possible."

"But—"

"Happy planning!" he shouted as he shut the door behind him, leaving Amelia in the empty apartment to think of ideas.

* * *

"This doesn't make any sense!" Stefan shouted as he and Klaus walked through the warehouse they had been in earlier. Stefan was still reeling over what had happened at Gloria's. "Why don't I remember you?!"

"You said it yourself, that time had a lot of dark holes."

"But the dark holes don't make any sense, Klaus!" Claire replied sourly as she and Stefan desperately tried to keep up his pace. "I told you, I wasn't emotionless. I don't black out when I feed and I still don't know why I don't remember any of this! I would've known!"

"If you knew us, then why haven't you said anything?" Stefan urged, but Klaus shook his head at him as he power-walked through the warehouse with a bitter tone.

"I'm a little busy right now. Memory lane will have to wait."

But Stefan was too impatient, and it escalated extremely quickly from there. Stefan reached forward and grabbed Klaus's arm with a brutal force and spun him around to face him with intent in his eyes. Claire came to a stop between the two, witnessing the situation and on guard in case it got worse. Stefan's voice was low.

"What the hell is going on? Answer me!"

Klaus's black eyes burned with fury, but he only calmly answered, "Let's just say we didn't get off to a brilliant start. To be honest, I hated you."

* * *

_Stefan's fangs barred and pierced the creamy white skin of the willing human in front of them. He sucked on her neck, looking as innocent as a dirty kiss to the unknowing humans around him. The human under his fingertips moaned in immense pleasure, but it was only just the beginning. The beautiful, mysterious woman with whom Stefan had been going back and forth with for nights leaned over and barred her own fangs to join in on the fun with the Ripper next to her. The two sucked the sweet-tasting blood out of the dark-haired girl before Stefan reached over, pulling both him and the woman off of their meal's neck, and looked into the beautiful blonde's eyes. The next thing he knew, they were locked in a passionate embrace and his hot lips burned from her lips all the way down to her chest, where he picked up her necklace with intrigue. _

_"It's beautiful," he noted. The woman smiled. _

_"A witch gave it to me. Supposedly it's magical." _

_"And is it?" _

_"It brought me love, didn't it?" _

_They kissed again, but this time, they were interrupted by a brute hand coming down on the woman's shoulder, alerting the lovers in their embrace._

_"It's late, Rebekah, we're leaving." _

_"Get off me!" Rebekah snapped at the man. Stefan rose himself up from the booth and faced him bravely. _

_"Who is this guy?" _

_"Stefan, don't!" Rebekah warned him as she got out of the booth and brushed past the man to Stefan's side. "He'll kill you. He's a lot stronger than he looks." _

_The man stared at the two in front of him with a small, slightly annoyed smile. "So this is the famous Stefan Salvatore I've been hearing so much about. You're right, he does have funny hair." The dapper young man turned back to the woman with his mouth turning down into a hard line. "I'm bored. I want to go." _

_"Then go without me, I'm not your girlfriend." _

_"No, you're my sister." He grabbed her and held her to him, unwilling to let her out of his grasp. Stefan was about to intervene, but he could see the murderous tendencies in the man's eyes before him. "Which means...you have to do as I say."_

_Right as the woman was about to say something, perhaps in protest against him, or maybe Stefan was going to step up to defend her honor, another warm body interrupted them. Everyone's attention turned from the intense situation to listen to the cheery, ignorant voice that joined their tiff. _

_"Stefan? What happened to you? You disappeared from all the fun!" All three vampires turned and watched as a young, enthusiastic, delectable blonde joined them in their meeting. The woman, whose name was unknown to the two strange vampires in Stefan and Clarissa's company, looked over at the blonde woman Stefan had been with for the past few nights and tilted her head at the man holding her, as if about to force her away. The unknown man had stopped cold, his eyes transfixed upon the pretty young intrusion, who returned his gaze skeptically. "And who is this?" _

_Stefan, although momentarily quite enraged at Rebekah's brother in front of him, replied, "Clarissa, this is_—"

_"Niklaus." The dapper man pushed his sister off of him and into Stefan's arms as he smiled at the young blonde. "Clarissa, is it?" _

_"It's what they've been calling me for a while now." She gave no thought to him at all, but knew immediately how interested he was in her. Weren't they all?_

_"Beautiful name." _

_"I wish I could say the same. Yours is..." _

_Niklaus grinned. "Archaic?" _

_She shrugged. "Actually, I was going to go with...strange." _

_He chuckled to himself, bowing his head for just a moment before looking up at her over his eyelids, contemplating his next move. Clarissa stared, biting back a smile, not sure whether she was amused or intrigued. In the snap of a hat, he looked over at his sister and shrugged. _

_"Alright, Rebekah, I suppose we can stay a bit longer. But only if Miss Clarissa agrees to accompany me to the bar so I may buy her a drink. On a night like this, your glass shouldn't be so empty." He nodded to the near empty wine glass in Clarissa's hand, and she looked down at it for a moment before looking up at Stefan, who was urging her to say yes because he wanted more time with Rebekah. _

_The thing was, she didn't really care what he thought. She turned back to Niklaus on her own agenda and just stared for half a moment, then turned on her heel and walked back down to the dance floor where everyone was enjoying the party. His lips turned down in an enraged expression until he watched her turn her head and prompt him to join. Rebekah and Stefan witnessed as Niklaus smiled and went after her in the crowd. When he reached her, he held out his arm for her to take, and Niklaus led her to the bar. _

_But as they walked, she leaned close and whispered into his ear, "It's not wine."_

* * *

Claire cocked her head for a moment, confused. "So...you have a sister?"

Klaus stared down at her, scoffing. "Out of all of that, the only thing that remained was the fact that I have a sister?"

She looked up and paused for a moment, but when Claire realized he was serious, her eyes widened. "I'm sorry, I was actually supposed to believe the part where we went and got a 'drink'? I thought that was put in there for dramatic effect..."

Stefan and Claire watched as Klaus's jaw squared and he turned away sharply towards the coffins that he had followed him around all summer. Claire smiled behind his back, enjoying his torment. "If you can't handle what I have to tell you, then don't ask."

At the very center of all the coffins in the room was the one he was looking for, and he pulled the lid up carefully to reveal the desiccated body of his essentially-dead sister. As the light shone upon her grey, creased face, he looked down at it with nostalgia, leaning down to caress her cold skin. Stefan and Claire both stood over the coffin, and Stefan desperately tried to rack his memory for her face, but he couldn't find it. Neither could Claire for that matter.

"I don't recognize her," Stefan confessed. Klaus chuckled.

"Well, don't tell her that. Rebekah's temper's worse than mine." He reached forward and yanked the dagger out of her chest with a dramatic, "Time to wake up, little sister." But minutes passed and still, Rebekah remained desiccated. Eventually, Klaus had grown impatient. "Any day now, Rebekah! She's being dramatic."

"Look, why don't you just tell us what the hell is going on," Stefan suggested, turning to Klaus with his arms crossed over his chest waiting for an explanation. "I mean, obviously you want me here for a reason, right?"

"Well, you have many useful talents." He spun around with a finger held up as if a light bulb had gone off in his head. "In fact, I learned some of my favorite tricks from you!"

* * *

_"So, Stefan, enlighten me," Niklaus began as he, Stefan, Clarissa, and Rebekah all sat around in a booth drinking fine wine and engaging in light conversation. The booth seemed to be divided in two with the couples on either side, Rebekah and Stefan close together and Clarissa and Niklaus as well. "What makes you worthy of an original like my sister? She's pure vampire and you're no more than a diluted bloodline." _

_"Don't listen to him, Stefan. Nik's an elitist," Rebekah shot. _

_"No, no. It's okay." A twinkle shone in Stefan's eyes as he leaned forward and looked between Niklaus and Clarissa. "You know, Nik, I could say the same for you. I've known Clarissa my entire life, so what makes you think you're worthy of her either? She's from the blood of kings!" _

_Stefan raised his glass at the notion while Clarissa giggled to herself. _

_"According to Stefan, then, the only man worthy enough would be a king," she proclaimed, perhaps annoyed. Niklaus chuckled under his breath before using his strong hand to bring her attention to his eyes, where he breathed slowly. _

_"If it is only a king you are worthy for, I suppose I'll have to become a king." Stefan and Rebekah watched as Niklaus leaned forward and brought her into a time-consuming kiss, one that wouldn't have been appropriate for human eyes. Stefan and Rebekah looked at each other with a smile for a moment before Rebekah turned and snapped. _

_"Nik, we happen to be in public!" _

_He broke away from the beautiful blonde, who was flush at the overwhelming intensity of the act. Niklaus smiled at his sister innocently. "Don't be so chaste, Rebekah. I let you have your fun as well." _

_"You two may be having too much fun," Stefan suggested under his breath, hiding a smile from his best friend. Nevertheless, Clarissa chuckled at him and threw an accusing finger up in his face._

_"Oh, really? And who was it, Stefan, that was the one that convinced me to come to Chicago and have 'fun'? Had I not been persuaded_—"

_"You underestimate yourself, my wonderful friend, you are essentially the life of this party!" He raised his glass as she did hers, and the both of them tapped each other's wines and drank from them. When they had finished their toast, Stefan turned to Niklaus. "So, Nik, where's the rest of your family?" _

_"Well, let's see. Um, I killed most of them," Klaus admitted. _

_"But not all," Rebekah corrected. Stefan looked at her, confused. _

_"And you're okay with that?" _

_"Well, we all had the chance to choose a side. And I chose the right one...eventually." Rebekah reached forward and grabbed her brother's hand with a soft smile. Just as Nik smiled back at his sister in a touching sibling moment, the vampires were interrupted when a loud voice came upon them as a human stomped over to their table to demand answers. _

_"Where the hell is my wife?!" urged the irate man. All the vampires looked at each other with a shrug while Stefan took the initiative to look up and reply. _

_"I don't know...I give up."_

_"You think you're so tough? Hiding in your bar, drinking your liquor? A telephone call to Chicago P.D. might set you straight!" the human threatened. This only earned tentative laughs across the table from them all, mocking the human who had so bravely confronted them. As they laughed, Stefan reached forward and called out to the woman standing not so far from their table. _

_"Lila? Lila, please! Come here for a second." _

_The man turned around, relieved to see his wife alive, and sighed in ease before wrapping an arm around his wife and turning her towards the exit. "Oh, thank God. Come on, we're leaving." _

_"Oh, no, no, no, no!" Stefan objected, stopping the man with just the power of his stare. "You're sitting." _

_The human, unable to refrain from the compulsion Stefan had chosen to indulge in, mystically sat down next to Klaus as he and Clarissa scooted into the booth further, Rebekah and Stefan doing the same so Lila could sit beside him opposite of her husband. Without removing his eyes from the brave human who dared to raise his voice against the all-powerful Ripper, Stefan took off Lila's glove and produced a knife from inside his jacket. Rebekah smiled. _

_"Stefan, don't be mean," she chastised. _

_"What the hell are you doing?" asked the confused man, but no one answered him. Niklaus looked at Stefan with intrigue, quite curious himself as to what Stefan had in mind. Stefan pressed the knife's blade down into Lila's pale wrist, creating an incision that caused a flow of blood to pour down into the glass underneath her hand. A smile spread onto Niklaus's lips as he watched and Stefan merely mocked a moaning sound as he filled the glass to the top. When he was done, he tapped Lila on the cheek cutely. _

_"Thank you so much, Lila. Why don't you go and bandage that up?" Lila lifted herself from the booth and Stefan slid the glass of blood over to the man sitting next to Clarissa. He grinned. "I'd like you to join me for a drink." _

_The man stuttered, his eyes wide. "W-What kind of s-sick freaks are you?" _

_"I said, drink!" Stefan repeated lively, this time drawing the compulsion in. He gestured to the glass and the man, unable to rip his eyes from the soulless vampire in front of him, reached forward and took the glass in his shaking hand. The human took a small sip, practically gagging from the taste. Immediately, Stefan leaned forward. "I didn't catch your name..." _

_"G-Go to hell!" the human snapped. All the vampires at the table laughed while Stefan proceeded to torture the human. _

_"Do you want another sip?" _

_"Liam! Liam Grant," he rushed out hurriedly, desperate to say or do anything but drink the blood of his wife again. Stefan leaned back with a nod._

_"Liam Grant! Have another sip, Liam!" Niklaus reached forward and tapped his glass to the shaking human's as Stefan urged him to finish the blood of his spouse without a single hint of remorse for his twisted schemes. _

* * *

Klaus walked in the other direction after remembering the brilliant moment that never left his mind. He had no time to wait around for Rebekah's theatric revival.

"I was your number one fan," Klaus informed Stefan, knowing that he and Claire were keeping up right behind as they always did. Stefan, however, was not convinced.

"Why should I believe any of this?"

But the hybrid did not respond. Instead, he turned to the guard watching the entrance and pointed back to the coffins he had just left. "When she wakes up, tell her to meet us at Gloria's bar then volunteer your carotid artery and let her feed until you die."

"Where are you going?" Stefan asked as Klaus took in another direction.

Without turning, Klaus replied, "You think I'm lying, Stefan, you and I knew each other. You trusted me with one of your secrets and now I'm gonna prove it to you."

"How?"

"We're going to your old apartment."

* * *

Gloria's bar looked even better than Damon remembered it, yet he still couldn't find the will to want to stay. For some reason, he just never liked the upbeat bar, perhaps because it reminded him of times when all he could think about was presenting an eternity of misery to his off-the-rails brother. Nevertheless, Damon's eyes scanned the bar to find any trace of the hybrid who took his brother and his girlfriend.

Of course, they were nowhere to be found, but there was one person that might know if they were out and about.

"Well, look what the wind blew in!" Gloria exclaimed as her eyes settled upon Damon from behind the bartop. "Last I heard, you hated this place."

"Gloria. Damn! If I knew you were gonna age like this, I would've stuck around."

The witch chuckled. "I always did like you better. But I see your brother and his friend are still running in the wrong crowd."

Damon tried not to be too thrilled at the mention of the two people he was desperate to find. "You've seen them?"

She nodded as she grabbed a glass and poured him a hearty dose of bourbon to start his night. "With Klaus. Bad combo, those three."

"You know where they went?"

Gloria looked up at him, suddenly realized that he didn't stop by the bar for just a quick chit-chat and a glass of liquor. Hesitantly, she told him some of the truth. "They'll be back later tonight. They're out running a little errand for me."

As she slid forward the glass of bourbon, Damon covered her hand with his and gave her a charming smile. "Gloria, don't be a tease. What kind of errand?"

She chuckled and ran her fingers along his skin. "Mm, I don't think so. You may be cute, but you're still a vampire."

A wave of rejection washed over Damon as the dark-skinned witch tore her hand from his and walked away to greet other customers at the other side of the bar. Damon watched her, slightly peeved, but also satisfied that he had gotten somewhat of the answer he wanted—Claire and Stefan would be back at the bar later tonight, which meant that they had a little time to come up with a plan.

* * *

_April, 1922_

_It was so sudden. I never saw it coming. Clarissa must have grown weary of all the things we did over the last few months, as she called Lexi behind my back and had her come and take me away. Lexi believes she can make me care again. I refused to see Clarissa after her betrayal of me, so much so that she has stopped coming to greet me. I believe Lexi said something about it being for the best. _

Amelia read over Stefan's scribble from the 1920s, knowing full well that it was wrong, but she couldn't help it. After seeing Stefan's wall, she knew that merely seeing Stefan wouldn't be enough to pull him back. She had to learn from the best. She had to learn what made him tick.

_June, 1924_

_Lexi's driving me crazy. More animal blood, more misery..._

Amelia flipped past the pages so fast, she didn't read all the words. She just needed the basics.

_December, 1935_

_Cravings are there, but it's easier. I've seen Clarissa twice in the past month, as I stopped trying to force her to bring me blood. Lexi has let her help me, and she's somewhat helped Clarissa, even. Regardless, Lexi's onto her next project_—_getting me to laugh._

Before Amelia could flip to another page, she heard footsteps out in the hallway. The journal was closed in her hand immediately and she flashed to another location, desperate to hide until whoever it was who entered the apartment decided to be gone.

"What a charming little homestead," Klaus mused as he brought the two vampires with him to Stefan's old apartment. However, upon reaching the door, he realized that it had been broken into, which made a frown settle upon his weary lips. "Do you feel that? Is anybody here?"

Claire brushed past the threshold as Stefan walked cautiously back into his apartment. She rolled her eyes at Klaus. "You know, you're like a paranoid old man. Stefan and I haven't been back to this place in forever...and this is Chicago. People break into places all the time."

"Why'd you bring us here?" Stefan pushed as he let nostalgia flood back into his head looking around his old apartment, an apartment from a whole different life that he didn't remember much of. Klaus paced in the living room.

"Liam Grant—the one who drank his wife's blood—I never could figure out why you wanted his name...and then you told him your little secret. It was all part of your special little ritual."

Amelia, who was listening from the hidden prohibition closet Damon had showed her earlier, suddenly realized that she chose the wrong spot to hide in. _I knew I should've climbed out the window, _she cursed herself, but then remembered that there were bars on the window which would've taken too much time to bend. She listened as Stefan remembered what Klaus was saying.

"To write it down," Stefan finished.

"And relive the kill. Over and over again."

Klaus walked over to the wall pantry, found the latch on the closet door, and opened it. Amelia stayed perfectly still and out of sight as Klaus turned his head and looked at Stefan with a grin.

"You believe me now?" he prompted. Stefan walked forward and into the closet just to remember all that he had missed back in the 20s. Though it was fuzzy, he did remember the list, but he wanted to see it again. Only, when he stepped inside, not only did the see the list, but he saw the golden-haired girl as her eyes widened in surprise upon finally seeing Stefan's face. Stefan froze in an instant, but he didn't have much time until Klaus realized that there was someone else with him. Luckily, Klaus was a little too busy with Claire outside to really notice why Stefan had been in the closet for so long.

"Okay, so you know where Stefan hid his dirty little secret." Claire crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at Klaus. "The rest of your story is bullshit. You've had the hots for me ever since you killed me. Let's not pretend for one second that this trip down fake memory lane with a bunch of stories about how you and I were together is nothing but a lame attempt to make me feel something I never felt. It's clever, but I'm not that gullible."

Klaus looked up at her with a soft smile. "Don't worry, sweetheart, you'll get your proof soon enough."

"I'm not you're sweetheart."

"Well, you _were_." Claire snuck an annoyed glare at him, but it only made Klaus's smile widen. "And perhaps you will be again...soon enough."

Before she had a chance to answer, there was shout from within the closet that Stefan had been instructed to look into. "Look what I found!" Amelia, partially on her guard preparing to flee as fast as she could, watched as he reached forward and grabbed a bottle of bourbon off the shelf in front of her without batting an eye. Stefan turned around and looked at Klaus and Claire. "1918. Single malt."

He stepped out of the hidden closet to divert attention and held up the bottle to Klaus, who nodded.

"My favorite. Let's go and find something to pair it with."

Klaus turned and walked out of the apartment, and Claire watched as Stefan locked eyes with her in an alarming moment before shutting the door of the secret closet without a single word. She knew something was off, but she also knew he couldn't say anything in front of Klaus. The secret would have to wait.

* * *

"So what's the plan, Super..." Damon trailed off as he entered the apartment with a scowl on his face. "Woman? Does that work? Eh, it's an off day. What do you got, Blondie? Let's hear it."

She lifted herself from the bed and raised a sigh in her chest as Damon put down a garment bag onto the couch. "I don't know, Damon, okay? I was a little too preoccupied with the hybrid, my boyfriend, and my sister paying me a surprise visit."

Damon plopped himself down on the couch and sighed. "Yeah, it was a good call not bringing Elena. Despite the fact that you did it just because you didn't want her to see Stefan—"

Amelia shook her head and refused to acknowledge the last part of his comment. "What's in the garment bag?"

"Oh, this? It's your outfit for tonight. Figured you could use something a little edgier, you know to seduce your boyfriend into coming home and all. I know where they're gonna be tonight." He looked up at her and stared in thought. "I'm guessing our foolproof plan is for me to get Stefan and Claire alone, you try and convince them both to ditch and come with us, and I'll distract Klaus."

The blonde was quiet for a long time before shrugging. "Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good plan to me."

"Must I do everything for you...?" He sighed and lifted the garment bag, throwing it into her hands. "Go on, Amelia, get changed. And there can be absolutely no dillydallying tonight. You either convince Stefan to come with us or you take him out...once Klaus knows I'm here, it's only a matter of time before he tries to kill me."

She nodded, he nodded, and they both realized what they had to do.

* * *

Gloria stared at Klaus irritably as she set two beers in front of Klaus and Stefan. Claire sat on the other side of them, having decided to indulge in one of her lesser favorite drinks, a gin and tonic.

"Where's Rebekah?" Gloria asked impatiently.

"She'll be here. Can't just conjure her on demand." He looked to the side and saw Stefan hunched over the bar, deep in thought. "What's with you? I thought Chicago was your playground."

Abruptly, Stefan lifted his head and gave a pointed glare at the hybrid next to him. "So this is why you asked me to be your wingman? Because you liked the way that I tortured innocent people?"

"Well, that's certainly half of it."

"What's the other half?"

"The other half, Stefan," Klaus began as he poured them both two shots of the single-malt whiskey they had brought back from Stefan's apartment, "is that you used to want to be my wingman."

* * *

_Niklaus caught the shot glass Stefan slid to him with ease and listened as the enthusiastic vampire explained his thoughts to him. _

_"They're jealous!" Stefan exclaimed while Nik tipped the alcohol back into his throat. "Your family wants you dead because they can never be what you are!" _

_"What? An abomination?" _

_"No. A king!" Stefan reached forward and clapped a hand down on the vampire's shoulder. The two of them laughed at the inside joke before Stefan added, "A king who I have deemed...somewhat suitable for my best friend. However, hurt her or break her heart, and an abomination will be the least of your worries." _

_Klaus chuckled. "I make no promises. Yet, somehow, I find it quite impossible to believe that Clarissa is the type to be hurt easily. Let alone have a heart that rests broken." _

_"I would be lying if I said I was never surprised by her resilience. It's as if she prefers never to have loved at all than to have mourned a loss. She's quite special." _

_"Special, indeed." Niklaus looked over Stefan's shoulder just to get a glimpse of the beautiful girl who was on the platform, singing with Gloria on stage as if she were a queen. He didn't doubt for a second that she was in spirit. Then, he realized that Stefan was doing the same, only to his sister. Then again, it seemed only fair, as Clarissa was like a sister to Stefan. "My sister fancies you, you know. But...I should warn you, Rebekah doesn't do anything half-speed, and that includes falling in love. So just be careful. She's totally mad." _

_The half-drunk Klaus erupted in laughter as Stefan joined him, chuckling, "I appreciate the advice." _

_"And when the point comes where she inevitably leaves you_—_she can't help it, it's just who she is_—_don't let your heart do anything stupid.__" Niklaus looked at Stefan seriously and Stefan nodded, taking the advice with stride. He inhaled deeply._

_"You know what? You're a good friend, Nik." He raised his shot glass. "I'm glad I met you." _

* * *

Stefan watched as Klaus held up his shot glass for a toast. "To friendship."

In a sort of trance, the young Salvatore hesitantly tapped the small shot glass and the two vampires tipped their heads back, knocking the liquor down their throats with ease. And that was only the beginning. Drink after drink, glass after glass, shot after shot, it all went down with stride. Clarissa was beside them, still straining herself to remember those darkened nights in the speakeasy when Klaus claimed to have known them. Of course, Stefan asked the questions on her mind for her to allow her to think.

"So, I'm confused!" he exclaimed, half-drunkenly. "If we were such great friends then, why do I only know you as the hybrid _dick _who sacrificed my best friend and my ex-girlfriend on an altar of fire?"

Beside them, Claire raised her glass dramatically. "Amen! Would it happen to be because this story is nothing but a pile of horseshit?"

Klaus stared at both of them for a moment before admitting, "All good things must come to an end."

* * *

_Niklaus was so transfixed on Clarissa's smile as they swayed back and forth to the soft jazz music in the background. Stefan and Rebekah did the same just a few feet away, but they weren't focused on them. For a few moments, it felt like the room was empty and just their presence was enough. Clarissa softly laughed under her breath. _

_"Staring for too long becomes extremely strange Nik," she warned him, leaning forward just a bit to whisper as he hid a smile. "Sort of like everything else about you." _

_"I'm only strange because I'm something new, Clarissa. Something different." _

_"That you are." She leaned back and ran her blue eyes all over his face, as if searching for something beneath the surface. He was transfixed, on the curiosity in her eyes, and it damn near broke his heart_—_well, it would if he'd had one. __"I can't figure out who you are, Niklaus. The man behind the mask remains...a mystery."_

_"I could say the same, Miss King." He clutched her closer and spun them around in a circle. The laugh in his ear was melodic. "You know, you remind me of someone I used to know." _

_"Oh?" _

_"Yes. Someone I knew a...long time ago." Suddenly, she watched as the smile on his lips faltered for a moment, and as she watched the sadness overcome his features, she moved one of her hands from his shoulders to gently touch his face. Niklaus's eyes closed just for a moment, the touch of her skin like silk on his cheek. _

_"Trust me, Niklaus. We both have plenty of skeletons in our closets." His eyes opened to watch as she gave him a reassuring nod. "We don't have to know everything about each other _right_ this moment. Isn't that the point of all of this? Stefan dragged me to Chicago so I could experience the present instead of living in the past. We have the rest of eternity to dwell." _

_Niklaus scoffed. "It must seem so easy to someone so young. Eventually, sweetheart, the past catches up to you."_

_Clarissa's mouth twitched into a sad smile. "Did she break your heart?" _

_"Yes. No. It's..." Nik sighed, "...complicated." _

_"Sort of like everything else about you." _

_Clarissa giggled, and for a moment, he forgot about the pain that surrounded his memories. They were quiet for a long while after that, and while they merely moved back and forth to the slowest jazz song ever invented at the time, both of them were snapped out of their silence by a bright flash next to them. Niklaus and Clarissa both squinted up at the photographer, who gave them a big, goofy smile, informed them that their picture would be developed for sale at a later time, and disappeared into the crowd to capture more memorable moments. When he was gone, the moment officially gone, Niklaus took Clarissa by surprise by pulling her out of his arms, spinning her under his arm, and pulling her back to him and bending down so that their noses were almost touching. While frozen in that position, Niklaus's breath was hot against her lips. _

_"Run away with me." _

_"No." _

_"Why not?" _

_"Because I'm not too keen on running away with someone I only met a few days ago, that's why." _

_Niklaus pulled her back up to a level head and continued dancing, even though he was slightly peeved. "A few days, a lifetime. What does it matter? I could give you everything, Clarissa. The world, right there at the will of your precious touch. Don't you want that?" _

_Clarissa chuckled softly. "Look, I already flew spontaneously for Stefan's enjoyment. I would prefer not to have to make another spontaneous decision for a while, if that's not too much to ask. Let's reassess in a few weeks, see how I feel." But still, she remained laughing, and squeezed Klaus's hand. "I didn't take you as the 'let's run away' type. You continue to surprise me." _

_Before he was able to say anything, to change her mind or whatnot, the Chicago Police stormed the speakeasy, crashing all glass and windows, and shot blindly at the strangers in the club. The nightclub erupted in a frenzy, women and men screaming and attempting to flee. Niklaus shielded Clarissa's body with his own, taking them to the ground on one knee. He looked around with a growl._

_"Damn it!" _

_Clarissa's eyes widened as she looked around, wondering whether to be intrigued or scared as hell. "What? What is it?"_

_"He's found us," Klaus hissed. _

_"Who found us? Nik_—_"_

_"Never you mind." Niklaus's hand came up to pull her chin up to eye level, where he didn't want to, but he had no other choice. "I must go, Clarissa." _

_But, stubborn as she was, Clarissa refused to take that as an answer. Her teeth gritted down as she demanded, "Niklaus, what the hell is going on?" _

_He didn't answer. Instead, Niklaus leaned down and kissed her quickly, without any sort of explanation at all. However, she barely kissed back, more enraged at the secrecy than fancied with the kiss. When he pulled away, he stared into her eyes and snapped, "Until that happens again, you are not to remember myself or my sister. All this time you've spent with us will be erased from your memories. You will not lose sleep over your loss, but I will find you again. I promise you that." _

_No matter how much he hated to leave, he didn't have another choice. He stormed the crowd, shouting out for Rebekah, and when he found her, he did the same thing he had done to Clarissa a second time to Stefan, telling him that until he said otherwise, he would not remember any of the time he or Clarissa spend with him and his sister. Seconds later, Niklaus and Rebekah were gone, all traces of the two of them erased._

* * *

"You compelled us to forget?" Claire scoffed as she took a sip of her gin and tonic. "What a dick move."

Klaus turned his cheek and bit down. "It was time for Rebekah and I to move on. Better to have a clean slate."

"But why?" Stefan prompted, feeling as if there were more to the story that was merely left out. "You shouldn't have to cover your tracks...unless you're running from someone."

Klaus's face turned absolutely stoic as he growled bleakly, "Storytime's over."

Stefan watched as Klaus just turned his cheek, refusing to say anything more, and from the corner of his eye, Stefan caught movement that was familiar to him. His brother stood up by the door and urged him outside silently, and with a sigh, Stefan leaned back and finished his glass heartily.

"I need another drink. A real one." Eyeing Klaus one more time, he lifted himself from the bar and threw a look over Klaus's shoulder to Claire, who realized that he wanted her to go with him. She nodded quietly and finished her gin and tonic, lifting herself from the bar as well.

"I think I'll go with him. Liquor's not really holding my appetite—" Before she could leave with Stefan, Klaus's hand clamped down on Claire's arm to hold her back. Blankly, he turned his head to her and shook it.

"I think Stefan will be okay on his own. He can bring you back a bite."

Claire hesitated, throwing a look towards Stefan, who realized that they were about to be in a hell of a lot of trouble. Clearing her throat, she yanked her arm back from Klaus and smiled at her friend. "Find me a pretty one, then, please."

"Will do." Stefan shielded his eyes and walked out of the bar to follow Damon's instructions. Claire turned back at Klaus, but hardly made herself comfortable as she just crossed her arms and stared at him from her place a little to his left.

"So what now, Klaus? You tell me how you've spent the last few decades _pining_ after me and how you brought us here and told us this story so you can win me back?" She rolled her eyes and continued sarcastically, "I don't know if you remember this, but you sort of killed me. I think sex is off the table now."

"Well, I would be more than happy to have it on the floor instead—"

"Not what I meant and you know it." She glared at him as he turned his head slightly so that he stared at her over his shoulder. A devilish smile appeared over his thick lips.

"I know this may be hard for you to believe, considering that I did kill you and all..." Klaus lifted himself from his chair, sliding up so close to Claire that she could feel his breath on her neck. She didn't move, not because she liked it but because she wouldn't dare show him how uncomfortable she was. Therefore, she remained disillusioned as his voice dropped to a husky whisper. "But I think you may reconsider."

"What are you gonna do? Compel me?" Her eyes narrowed, as if she were ready to accept the challenge.

"I don't have to do anything but this."

Before she could get a chance to object to whatever the hell he was about to do, he reached forward, grabbed a fist full of her long, golden hair, and forced his lips on hers.

* * *

Damon stood out in the warm summer night, waiting for his brother and Claire to follow him out like he had asked. He was waiting for a moment or two until unexpectedly, he was thrown up against the nearest car door by the collar of his shirt with a growling Stefan all up in his personal business.

"What is wrong with you?!" Stefan hissed.

"What is wrong with you?" Damon retorted, shoving his brother off his chest. "Where's Claire?"

"She's preoccupied, Damon. Let it go." Stefan shook his head. "I told you before, she doesn't want to see you. What don't you understand?"

"The part where she saved my life in the woods! Or did she not tell you that? You kill Andie, she saves me. What are you two, good cop bad cop? It's real tiring, let me tell you that!"

"Tell me you didn't bring Elena here," the younger brother snarled. "Klaus almost saw Amelia today. If he finds out that you two are still tracking us, he's gonna get real angry real fast and then he'll go poking around in Mystic Falls again, where he _cannot_ find Elena!"

Damon shrugged. "Well, brother, I'm not going anywhere until I get Claire back and your Amelia's sure as hell is not gonna let you go back, either. What do you care about Elena, anyways? I thought you switched girlfriends."

"She is the key to everything!" Stefan explained, poking at his brother's chest heatedly. "Klaus can't know she's alive."

"What are you talking about?"

"She was supposed to die in the sacrifice and she didn't! Now Klaus can't create any new hybrids. His witch is seconds away from figuring it out! Tell Amelia to go home and forget about me because I'm not gonna put Elena in danger."

Damon stiffened and jerked his head to the side. "Tell her yourself."

Stefan backed away from his brother and looked up to find Amelia standing just a few feet away, having heard their entire conversation, waiting for an explanation.

* * *

"Get the hell off of me!" Claire shouted as she pushed Klaus away and got up from the bar without hesitation. All of the memories had flooded into her mind with one kiss, everything that had happened in the 20s. It was like the whole gap in her memory had instantly been filled with a sixty-second embrace she had no control over. Klaus stared at her, as if waiting for her to be swept off her feet and kiss him again. Instead, her teeth gritted at him angrily. "You sick son of a bitch! What did you do to me?"

"You wanted proof. I believe that should satisfy it," Klaus pointed out. She hesitated for a moment, and although he couldn't see it clearly, he knew she was flustered. A few agonizing seconds went by before she nearly growled at him.

"I need a goddamn moment alone."

He watched her as she left, but he heard Gloria announce the final call for the night. So, with a hearty sigh, he moved back to his chair and reached forward to drink his alcohol without reservations and would wait until Clarissa would come back back to scold him some more per her usual. And then, Klaus became suddenly aware of someone who had been standing there the whole time—someone who sat down at the bar with a hiss.

"Ooh. Ouch. She really didn't take that well. Better step up your game, man." Damon tried to hide the jealousy in his voice, and Klaus could tell. The hybrid smiled.

"I see they've opened the doors to the riff-raff now."

"Oh, honey, I've been called worse."

The hybrid twirled an umbrella toothpick in his hand as he sighed at the lonesome vampire beside him. "You don't give up, do you?"

"Give me my brother and my girlfriend back...you'll never have to see me again," he offered.

"Well, I am torn. You see, I promised Stefan I wouldn't let you die...but how many freebies did I really sign up for? Really, I've been itching to kill you, but Clarissa would be quite upset...however, clearly you want to die...otherwise you wouldn't be here, so..."

Damon shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a thrill seeker."

Abruptly, Klaus reached beside him and grasped Damon by his throat, holding him up with the squeeze of his fingertips, a murderous gleam in his eyes.

* * *

Stefan walked forward and looked at the blonde vampire standing in front of him, partially avoiding his eyes but also aching to look at him. He tried to remain as detached as he could. "You shouldn't be here, Amelia."

"But I am."

"What do you want? Damon won't be able to distract Klaus for long."

"How can you ask me that?" she asked quietly, stepping forward to put a hand on his face. "Stefan, I'm here for you. I spent a century looking for you and when I found you...I didn't want to have to look anymore. I need you to come home, Stefan, not just for me but for everyone. Please."

He stared at her without speaking, for he didn't know what exactly to say. Instead, he just stood in front of her as she reached forward and pulled him into her arms, attempting to persuade him to come back. But as she felt the limp body of her boyfriend in front of her, she realized that it wasn't an option anymore. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn't going to come willingly, she could tell by what he had said to Damon that it wouldn't be enough for her to just ask him. So discreetly, she raised a vervain dart in her hand and moved to inject it into his skin.

But Stefan caught her, his fist circled around her wrist as he knocked the vervain dart to the ground. She fought against him, managing to release her arm and pick up the vervain dart once again, but he then flashed them over to the nearest car, knocking the vervain dart away again, and he shook her shoulders furiously. Amelia turned her cheek as she felt his wrath.

"How much clearer can I make it? I don't want to come home!"

* * *

Damon struggled against Klaus's grasp, but there wasn't much more he could do. His feet were high off the ground, making it ten times harder to breathe with the addition of Klaus's sausage fingers tightened around his neck.

"Oh, dear, what was that?" Klaus tsked while he held up the wooden toothpick to Damon's throat. "I'm a little boozy, so you'll forgive me if I miss your heart the first few tries."

He chuckled sarcastically and stabbed at Damon's chest, where Damon groaned out in pain from the small little stab. Klaus shook his head.

"No, that's not it..."

He tried again, just near the heart. Damon shouted out in pain yet again. "Ooh! Almost!"

Damon reached up and tried to pry Klaus's hand off of his neck, but it was useless. Squeezing out through his weakened breaths, Damon growled, "You think this whole scheme of yours is so clever...get her away from Mystic Falls, from me, and make your move? We've been through hell together, we can get through a hybrid."

Klaus's sadistic smile dropped from his lips and he threw Damon across the room so he landed on top of a table, breaking it in pieces. Quickly, Klaus broke away a leg of a toppled chair, twirling the stake in his hand with a grimace.

"I'm sure my 'scheme' will work after I kill you," he commented, kneeling over Damon as he brought back the stake and moved to strike, only he felt a force vying against him. When Klaus looked up, he saw Claire as her eyes shone a different breed of fury.

"Get off of him. Now."

"Or what?" Klaus growled.

He saw the red twinkle in her eye for a split moment before she brought her heel up and kicked the hybrid so hard, he went flying back. She held the stake in her hand to prepare as Klaus snarled and flashed up onto his feet, suddenly knocking the wooden stake behind the bar as he rammed Claire into the counter, causing her to grunt in pain. No matter how hard she tried, he was a mixture of her blood and the strength of a werewolf and vampire—virtually unbeatable.

"I have been extremely patient with you," he reminded her. Damon rolled over onto his side, the soreness from being thrown into a table impairing his ability to stand up. "I knew you weren't quite over your life in Mystic Falls from all your _sulking_ around. You still remained reserved whilst I asked you to do what I want, and I was patient before, Clarissa. But no more! Your feelings for Damon are becoming a liability."

Claire nearly laughed at the pathetic low-blow. "Yeah? Well, Klaus, your 'feelings' for me are becoming a pain in my ass, too! And yet I stay. I stay because I made a deal to save _his _life! Nothing you can do will change that!"

Lowly, he growled, "Let's see about that."

She didn't understand what he wanted until the look in his eyes, the look of sheer anger, told her what he was about to do. She knew what it meant instantly after recognizing the idea forming inside of his head. He hadn't been afraid to compel her before, and he wouldn't be afraid to do it again. Like something had snapped in her, she fought against him with every fiber of her being, but he refused to let her go, grabbing onto the back of her head to force her head up so he could look into her oceanic blue eyes. She screamed on the top of her lungs, but it was no use. As soon as Damon saw what was coming, he stumbled to lift himself up from the ground.

"No!" Damon shouted as his stomach sank when he knew it was starting. It was too late. Klaus captured her eyes and wouldn't let her go.

"You no longer care for Damon Salvatore. You no longer think, no longer pine, no longer wait for him. You lose no sleep over him whatsoever. Damon Salvatore is a person, a name, a face that resonates nothing with you but pure, unadulterated _hatred._"

Right as he finished, Damon tackled him to the ground, where Claire stumbled back and watched as the hybrid and the Salvatore fought at her feet, but she was too disoriented. Damon managed to get a few punches in until suddenly, he started to scream when he felt enormous pain in his head from some unknown force. Gloria was behind them, shaking her head.

"Take it outside," she growled. Damon clutched at his head for a moment while Klaus leaped onto his feet and loomed over the dark-haired Salvatore.

"You believe you can get through anything? I believe, Damon, that hatred is perhaps too big of an obstacle for you to overcome."

Wiping his mouth free of blood from Damon's blows, Klaus walked towards the bar and left Damon on the floor to realize what he had done, virtually stomping on his heart with every footstep.

* * *

Stefan backed away from Amelia and ran his tongue over his teeth angrily. "Klaus is obsessed with siring his hybrids. If leave with you, he'll come after me, and he'll find Elena. The second he knows she's alive, he'll figure out why it's not working."

She frowned at him with her back still against the car. "We can keep her safe, Stefan! Anything is better than you being with him for the next hundred years and lose yourself all over again you...you can't do that to yourself."

"It's already done, Amelia!" he shouted, spinning around at her with a sharp snap. "It will never be the same after this!"

"You don't think I know that?"

"No! I don't think any of you know that! Claire and I have done things that we can't come back from. _I've _left bodies scattered from Florida to Tennessee. Innocent people. Humans. The only people who are able to bring me back from that are either dead or in the same situation! I can't come back from this. Not this time."

Amelia hesitantly stepped closer and grabbed his hands. "Stefan, I don't believe that. I know what it's like to lose control, but I think that if you just came with me then—"

"You can't help me, Amelia. You can't help either of us."

This infuriated her. She dropped his hands from hers and threw them up in extreme frustration, her entire face turning tomato red as she screamed at him, tired of the run around. "Well what do you suppose I do then? Huh? Give up?"

Stefan was unfazed. "Yes. What's done is done and...and you need to stay as far away from me as possible." He stepped back and squared his jaw. "I'm done with Mystic Falls, and I'm done with my past. I'm done with you. I don't want to see you, I don't want to be with you. I just want you to go."

There was nothing for her to say. Stefan turned around and headed back into the bar, leaving Amelia absolutely speechless, unable to process whoever it was that she had just been talking to. Because it certainly couldn't have been the Stefan she knew. The Stefan she remembered.

No. It wasn't Stefan at all.

* * *

Damon and Amelia didn't talk, they both just got into the car ready to make the trip back home. Amelia stared ahead of her, her head in her hand as she processed what had happened earlier. Damon was defeated, absolutely crushed, knowing what Klaus did to Claire. When Klaus had walked away from him earlier, Claire had slowly come up to hover over him, where he looked into her blue eyes hoping for some sort of hope that shone through. Instead, she let out a sadistic scoff and walked away, leaving him on the floor to fend for himself. It was a sight that broke his spirit, crushed his soul, and blackened his heart for the worst.

"You okay?" Damon muttered to the blonde next to him. She let her eyes wander over to the other side of the car to look at him.

"Are you?"

He didn't reply. Instead, all he did was put the key into the ignition and sped off, wishing he'd never taken the call from Katherine in the first place.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**adela: **Here you go! Sorry it took so long!

**NicoleR85: **Thanks! Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed it!

**RHatch89: **Thank you :)

**Tvd2014: **Thanks so much! Aw, yeah, I know what you mean but they'll be reuniting soon and now it got like 10000x more intense so it'll be fun to see them journey on from here. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

**grapejuice101: **Thanks! Lol nope, especially now that she doesn't have a reason to go back to Mystic Falls. But things will get a whole lot more interesting after "The Reckoning", and I'm already about 3/4 of the way through the next chapter so we'll get to it soon. Sorry it took me so long to update! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

**SomebodyWhoCares: **:)

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	40. Disturbing Behavior

**Disclaimer: Refer to the first chapter please :)**

* * *

**Disturbing Behavior**

Just as Klaus smiled at the saleswoman of the upscale city boutique who kindly replenished his empty champagne glass with endless alcohol, he was snapped out of his appreciative look by a long, frustrated groan and a certain blonde vampire who walked over and snatched the newly poured drink from his hands. The alcohol in the glass lasted merely a few seconds before being guzzled by the defeated Claire. This, in turn, made Klaus's smile widen.

"You seem troubled," he noted. She stared up at him with knives for eyes.

"Well, your sister is a pain in my 'troubled' ass. Everything I try to find for her is 'too provocative' or 'too tackless' or 'too...blue'!" Claire mocked her new companion's British accent as she leaned back on the soft couch to take in a moment of silence, knowing full well that Stefan and Klaus were both watching her theatrics.

Could they really blame her, though? Following Damon and Amelia's stunt the night before, Klaus had taken them back to the warehouse where Rebekah was supposed to be recovering from the dagger, only to find her alert and able. She was so alert and able, in fact, that she found it necessary to drain the life out of the security guard Klaus had compelled. As a peace offering for being so cruel to her back in the 1920s, Klaus gifted Stefan his memories of the era back to him for Rebekah so Stefan could realize what he and Rebekah had between him. But that, of course, wasn't the real reason he had brought her back to life. He wanted what Rebekah could give him so he could give it to Gloria and track down the source of his werewolf problem, but she didn't have it.

The catch was, both Stefan and Claire knew who did. Only, Klaus would have to kill them both before he got it out of them.

Meanwhile, as they lounged around the boutique, Klaus chuckled under his breath at Clarissa's dramatics. "My sister can be quite a handful, can't she?"

Claire lifted her eyes. _Which is why you don't want to deal with her, _she thought, and before she could think of saying it, Rebekah interrupted them with a troublesome sigh.

"There _has _to be more to this dress," she demanded from behind the curtain where she was changing. Klaus's eyes locked on Claire for her to answer, but she kept her mouth in a tight, thin line so that he could begrudgingly respond.

"There's not."

Rebekah pushed aside the curtain and stepped out into the view of all three vampires. She was exceptionally beautiful, even Claire had to admit that. She had shoulder-length, deeply saturated blonde hair that had been easily tamed, a thin and strong stature, and a posture that any woman of the century would not be able to rival. Everything about Rebekah screamed 'confidence', no doubt the result of her family lineage.

"So women in the 21st century dress like prostitutes, then?" Rebekah challenged. Klaus shrugged.

"Look at Clarissa."

"Jackass!" Claire snapped, throwing a throw pillow at him from the other couch. He snickered as the saleswoman waiting on him and Stefan brought him another glass of champagne and then moved to refill Claire's.

"You know, I got dirty looks for wearing trousers." Rebekah scoffed. Klaus could not look any more disinterested.

"You wore trousers so women today could wear nothing."

"And what is this music? It sounds like a cable car accident."

"I-It's dance music," Stefan replied, trying to save them all from Klaus's 'ugh' lecture. Rebekah turned to him with a disgusted look.

"People dance to this?"

Stefan agreed, but the conversation was beginning to bore Klaus; not even the alcohol could entertain him. Tiredly, he looked up at his sister. "Are we done?"

She stepped forward to him. "And why are you so grumpy?"

"I needed _one _thing from you for my witch to find out why my hybrids are dying. One thing: your necklace...and you lost it."

"I didn't lose it. It's just been...missing for ninety years." Ignoring her stubborn brother, she turned to Stefan and Claire on the opposite side. She twirled for them. "So what do you think?"

Claire opened her mouth, but Stefan took the words out of it, deciding to ease the burden off his friend for once. He thought he had been doing a good thing, but it didn't turn out that way.

"I like it." Rebekah stared at him blankly, causing him to question defensively, "What? I said I liked it!"

"I can always tell when you're lying, Stefan."

The blonde-haired Original turned on her heel and went back to the dressing room to try on another of her thousand dresses she kept behind the door. When she was behind the curtain and out of sight, Claire turned to her bronze-haired friend and slapped him so hard on his arm, it actually retained an "ouch" from Stefan, who was confused as to what he had said that made it go wrong. Klaus sighed heavily.

"Nice one. Good work," Klaus muttered. Stefan's eyes widened in protest.

"You're the one who pulled the dagger out of her."

"I heard that!" Rebekah shouted out of sight. With a frustrated breath, Claire stood up and chugged the last of her champagne.

"I'll try to see if I can speed this fashion show along some." She set the champagne glass down on the table in the center of them all and turned to go back to the rooms, but instead, Klaus called her back with his voice as he lounged on the red velvet chair in front of her.

"Clarissa?" She stopped and turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, prompting him to continue. Klaus smirked. "I wouldn't be opposed to _you_ putting on a fashion show, you know. It might make this a little less boring."

Claire processed his words for a moment and then shot a sour smile. "The only time you're gonna see me parade around you half-clothed like a prostitute would be in your dreams. So have fun with that."

Without anything more to say, she turned and went behind the curtain to Rebekah's dressing room, whereupon Rebekah looked at her with a scowl and said, "See, I knew it was prostitute-like!"

When the two blonde vampires had disappeared to do their bidding, Klaus and Stefan were the only ones left on the couches in the boutique. After Claire went back to the dressing rooms and Klaus was left longing after her, Stefan turned to the hybrid next to him and just scoffed, slightly in disgust. He hadn't learned about what Klaus had done until later that night, hours after they had found out Rebekah did not have the answer to Klaus's prayers. The only reason he did find out, in fact, was not because Claire or Klaus told him, but because when mentioning what happened with Damon earlier in the evening, Claire seemed to hold herself in an entirely different manner. She was evading defending his brother, she did not cry to him, and she didn't even show any shred of pain for what she had lost. When asked why she was acting so strange, she didn't realize what she had done, and upon further conversation, Stefan came to the realization that something was different about her. Something had changed.

Based on the memories that had been returned to him, Stefan had a pretty good idea of what happened while he was outside with Amelia and Klaus, Claire, and Damon were all in one room. A follow-up conversation with Klaus cleared it up as if he was walking out into a cloudless sky: the hybrid dick compelled his best friend to forget about all her feelings for the older Salvatore brother in an attempt (a futile one at that) to win her heart and pledge her loyalty. His advances were just the beginning, he reckoned.

Stefan turned to Klaus with a smile that rivaled the sharpness of a dagger. "You do know that you didn't compel her to like you, you just compelled her _not _to like my brother, right?"

The hybrid frowned. "She'll come around soon enough, Stefan."

"I wouldn't hold my breath." He scoffed and lifted himself from the couch he was sitting on. "All right. I'm going to get some fresh air."

Klaus didn't object, he merely just pulled the full champagne glass to his lips and waited for Rebekah and Clarissa to continue their completely irrelevant and unentertaining escapade while Stefan was off doing his own bidding. Stefan, disinterested in sitting around for hours upon end waiting for Claire and Rebekah to finish up, stepped up to the front doors with coffee on his mind.

Then, he looked out the glass doors only to see the haunting presence of a ghost from his past standing across the street: Katherine Pierce.

* * *

Amelia opened the blinds of the Salvatore study with a bitter edge to her steps. Damon roused himself from the couch with a groggy groan, but she didn't really care that she had forcibly woken him up from his passed-out state. A bottle of bourbon sat lonely and empty on the coffee table, as disheveled as Damon looked.

"Gah," Damon snapped. Amelia paid no attention to him, but instead picked up the mess that he'd made the night before. He slowly brought himself up off the couch and glared at her. "Don't you know that's rude?"

"Don't care," she said shortly while gathering all his trash into her arms so she could clean up. "Get up. Get dressed. Elena's taking you today."

He scoffed. "No one's 'taking' me. I don't need to be babysat."

"Yes. You do. Get up."

"No." He reached to his side and grabbed an unopened bourbon bottle from behind the couch. He laid back down as he popped the bottle open and Amelia stared down at him angrily. Damon shrugged. "I want to stay here. This is my house, remember? You have your own house go...bother someone else there."

He waved her off, but Amelia wasn't taking it. She reached forward and snatched the bourbon out of his hand effortlessly and watched as Damon's eyes widened as if his candy had just been taken away and he was a three-year-old. She sauntered out of the room and called out over her shoulder.

"Get dressed! Elena will be here soon."

Speaking of, the moment she walked out of the study and into the foyer, grabbing a trash can and shoving all of Damon's shit inside of it, she saw the door open and Elena step through. Amelia looked over her eyelids, but didn't stop moving with the trash in her hand. She put the bourbon down on the small table beside her and sighed.

"Morning, Elena. Damon's getting ready."

"Why do I have to take him again?" Elena asked, crossing her arms and avoiding Amelia's gaze. She was so angry that Amelia had neglected to tell her about Stefan, but she'd already had her fight with her when they came back from Chicago the night before. No one had told her anything except for the fact that the whole trip was a bust, and it was killing her. She wanted to know if Stefan was okay. "What's wrong with him?"

Amelia hesitated, slowing her movements for a while as she realized that she hadn't told Elena what had happened to Claire. She looked up at Elena slowly, who had been waiting for an answer. Setting down the garbage, Amelia lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Claire," she said quietly. Elena cocked an eyebrow. "Klaus...compelled her to forget that she cares about Damon. Not just...to not care about him, but to hate him. He's not taking it so well."

And, suddenly, Elena's demeanor changed on a dime. No longer was the anger towards Damon and Amelia consuming her, but now she felt terrible. There she was, whining about the fact that no one took her to Chicago when Damon was devastated, no doubt. After everything she'd done for Claire and Damon, to think that Klaus could ruin it with a look just disgusted her.

Amelia looked away quickly and tied the garbage bag up. "Anyways, I need you to take care of him today. I don't have time to watch him."

"Is he okay?"

"No, Elena. He's not okay. I don't know if he'll ever be okay." She threw a look over her shoulder. "Which is why I need you to watch him, okay? Take him to the Lockwood thing today."

"But—"

"No buts, Elena. I need you to do this for me." With that, she disappeared, and after Elena gave an exhausted sigh, she watched Damon begrudgingly walk down the stairs with a sour frown on his face. A sad smile twinged at her lips.

"Hey, Damon, are you—?"

"Ooh. My bourbon." He ignored her completely and walked to the table and grabbed his bourbon to take a long, hearty sip. She frowned and reached forward, snatching the bourbon out of his hands. He scowled at her. "Seriously, Elena?"

"Move it," she demanded, pointing towards the door. He sighed and went forward, and Elena wasn't too far behind; though she stopped to take a long sip of bourbon before setting it back down and following him out of the house.

A while later, in the Gilbert family household, Damon made a dissatisfied face as he set the wooden spoon back into the pot on the stove, which was radiating the scent of the Gilbert's Family Chili. He was less than pleased.

"I just don't know why you want to bring chili to a potluck. Everybody brings chili." He shrugged and turned back to the breakfast table, ignoring Elena's hovering over him at the center island. She kept a clear vision of him through the corner of her eye while she chopped onions, as if he were on suicide watch or something. In an attempt to keep the conversation steered away from him, he noticed Alaric walk into the kitchen and smiled at his friend. "Hey, Ric."

"What's up?" Alaric asked. Elena looked up immediately, breaking her 24/7 Damon Watch to speak to the guardian in her household.

"What time do you want to go to the Lockwood party?"

"Uh, those Founders parties aren't really my thing..."

Damon, still fixated on the chili situation, muttered, "...show up, there are gonna be _nine_ other people there who brought chili."

Elena turned to him with a roll of her eyes. "It's an old family recipe, okay?"

He glanced at her bitterly. "Yeah! I know. I knew your old family. They made sucky chili."

The brunette teenager rolled her eyes yet again at the condescending tone from the vampire, making it extremely hard to feel bad for him at that particular point in time. Alaric could see the annoyed expression Damon had put on Elena's face, and therefore, he turned to his friend and, in the least offensive way possible, asked, "Why are you here...exactly?"

The blue-eyed vampire sighed. "I'm being held hostage."

Elena set down the knife in her hand with a frustrated breath. "He's not being held hostage!"

He lifted himself from his chair, almost excitedly. "Really? Great, then I can go?"

"Damon, sit down!" Elena picked up the knife in her hand and pointed it at him in a very scary manner. Damon, partially afraid of what Elena would do to him if he took one more step towards the back door, reluctantly sat back down in the chair at the center island and looked at her as if she were in the middle of chastising him. Realizing she might've been a bit harsh, Elena set the knife down gently while Alaric opened his mouth, also reluctant to say something but deciding to take the risk.

"Um, why is Damon being held..." Elena scowled at him, causing Ric to rephrase after clearing his throat. "Why is he not allowed to leave, again?"

"She thinks I'm gonna break." Damon rolled his eyes and looked at Ric. "Which is...wrong. I'm completely fine."

Elena shot him a disbelieving look. "Klaus compelled Claire to forget that she loved you. Actually, he compelled her to hate you. So basically, everything that you've spent your entire life trying to get her to stop thinking about you kind of just blew up in your face. And you think you're 'completely fine'?"

Damon shrugged, although her words had stung as if someone held him down and poured alcohol on an exposed wound. Nevertheless, he kept his tough exterior. "I am. In fact, if I weren't being held hostage here right now, I would be at the Grill with a nice bottle of top-shelf bourbon drinking pathetic humans under the table while I try to forget...well, everything you just said. And it would've worked out great, thank you."

The doppelgänger turned to Ric and hissed, "He's in denial."

"I'm not in denial!" Damon threw up his hands frustratedly and then, in a twist of events, turned and pointed at her accusingly. "How about you, Elena? Don't you think _you're _the one who's really in denial?"

Instantaneously, she became defensive. "What? How?!"

He pointed at her chest, at the round, silver token of affection Stefan had given to her merely days after their first meeting. The necklace she cherished and, despite having broken up with him more than six months ago, still wore every single day. She looked down at it with wide eyes, as if she'd never realized what it meant by keeping it on.

"You're still wearing that necklace. Isn't that just a painful reminder of your unbreakable-slash-totally breakable bond with Stefan?"

Elena became silent, staring down at her necklace while thinking of what harsh words Damon implied. A few moments passed before she brought up the courage to suck in a deep breath and look back up at him with a fire in her eyes that he knew ran in her blood.

"And yet you still neglected to take me with you to Chicago." Damon's triumphant smirk dropped instantly. "That's what I thought. So, like it or not, Damon, I'm bringing chili to the potluck. And you're coming with me. In fact, you're gonna stay by my side the entire day because I don't trust that you won't go running off to the Grill to get drunk and eat the first attractive girl you see and then regret it when Claire comes back."

At this, Damon frowned, but he had no say in the matter. Elena gave a victorious pop of her shoulder and turned around to put the onions she had been chopping into the brewing chili on the stove.

* * *

Elena begrudgingly walked up to the front door as it rang, tired of looking after Damon as he downed half the alcohol stash in her house—which was saying a lot because Alaric had kept a decent stash lying around because of his binges. When she opened the door, she found Caroline standing in the threshold with a big smile on her face and a pot in her hand with the familiar stench of chili.

"I come bearing gifts!" the preppy blonde announced. Elena scowled.

"Please say that's not chili."

"Of course it is!" Damon boasted as he sauntered into the foyer. Elena shot an annoyed glare at him over her shoulder as he smiled sourly at Caroline. "Isn't it, Blondie?"

Caroline didn't respond, but instead stepped inside with a weary look towards her friend and the vampire in her foyer. But before anyone else could say anything, Elena caught sight of the small, dark-skinned witch who popped out from beside the threshold with her arms wide.

"I'm back!"

"Bonnie!" Elena exclaimed as her friend jumped into her arms as a greeting. "Hi!"

The two teenagers clung onto each other as if they hadn't seen each other for years, and yet it'd only been a few months. Caroline smiled over at her friends, and Damon just took one _long _swig from Alaric's bourbon and chuckled to himself.

"Aw. Isn't this cute?" he mocked. The doppelgänger turned around at him, this time annoyed beyond repair. She lifted her arm and pointed to the back door.

"Out."

Damon frowned. "What?"

"You heard me. I said out! You said Liz called you so...just go. Meet me at the Lockwood party in an hour. Not a minute later!"

But before she could even get half her sentence out, Damon was already out the door, leaving Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena to their reunion. The moment he was outside, he drove off in his car and went to go meet Sheriff Forbes, who had called to talk to him about what had happened while he was away in Chicago with Amelia. They met in town square, only a few minutes from Elena's home, and walked through the city under the midday sun.

"So, Mayor Lockwood called your gay ex-husband to torture your vampire daughter?" Damon repeated simply, an underlying incredulous tone in his statement.

"Yes," Liz replied. "I've been keeping him detained to make sure the vervain's out of his system. So you could...you know."

Damon frowned, confused. "Can't we just kill him?"

"No, Damon! He's Caroline's father."

"He sounds like a douchebag to me."

"Yeah, well, just because you and I are on okay terms doesn't mean I'm suddenly a big advocate for your..._lifestyle_."

Damon could sense the discomfort from his friend, and as an attempt to lighten the mood, he looked over at her and joked, "Is that what you told him when you got divorced?"

Liz rolled her eyes at him and the two kept moving until they finally reached the underground City Jail that had been long since out of commission, but was the place that Liz could keep Bill without raising any suspicion. As they continued down the long stairs, Liz warned him to check the level of Bill's vervain before compelling Bill to forget what happened. Soon, they reached the jail cell, where Liz opened the gate and revealed to Damon the middle-aged man tied down to a chair.

Damon reached forward and ripped the duct tape off his mouth, and as Damon threw it on the floor, Bill looked at his ex-wife with narrowed eyes.

"You brought another vampire into this?"

"It's the best thing for all of us, Bill."

"So, Bill..." Damon began, looking down at Bill with ravenous eyes. "I hear you're into the whole daddy-daughter vampire torture thing."

"I was trying to help her," the father defended himself. Damon lowered his head to level with Bill and gave him a small shrug.

"Well, if there's anyone who doesn't need help, it's your annoying control freak of a daughter." As Damon spoke about Caroline, he couldn't help but picture a similar blonde in his head, but then shook it off as his eyes went red and his fangs popped out from his mouth. Quickly, he bit into Bill Forbes and tasted his blood, but found that it was completely clean. Wasn't worth the effort, though. Damon turned back at Liz. "Yep. Vervain-free."

"Just erase his memory, Damon," Liz instructed. But instead of cutting to the chase right away, Damon decided to ask a few questions first for the sake of understanding why what went down happened.

"So, Bill, I have a question. What makes you think you can change the basic nature of a vampire?"

"The mind's a powerful tool. It can be trained and retrained. You just have to be strong enough."

"Oh, yeah?" Damon came to a slow in front of Bill and clasped his hands on the father's shoulders, staring him right in the eyes. He could see the fear in the human's pupils as he hissed, "I completely agree. I actually happen to _love _mind control myself!"

Bill tried to turn away, but Damon grabbed Bill's face and forced his eyes back to his. "You will leave town immediately. All you remember is you came to bring your daughter back to school shopping. But she didn't want to see you, so you decided to return back to whatever cave you crawled out from and that's where you'll stay. Okay?"

Damon watched as the dazed look of a newly compelled human crossed his face and he smiled triumphantly before turning back to Liz. "Okay. That's done. Now for a drink."

* * *

When Stefan walked into Gloria's, he saw exactly what he expected—Klaus's flamboyant sister sitting up on the bar like she owned the place, Klaus with his feet up on the bar like _he _owned the place, and Claire fixing herself a strong drink behind the bar as a means to drown out the sounds of Klaus's advances and Rebekah's high-pitched shrills.

"You left us," Rebekah pouted as Stefan sauntered in, embracing them all with his company.

"Yeah, sorry. Retail therapy was making my head explode."

"Tell me about it," Klaus muttered under his breath. Stefan turned to look at Gloria, who was sitting at a table completing a spell that he was sure was being used to find the vervain necklace he had given to Elena. He tried to remain calm.

"What's she doing?"

"She's _failing_," Klaus growled, the grumpiness obviously still present in his tone. Gloria did not appreciate his impatience.

"It's hard to find something when you don't have anything to go on," she bit back. Stefan watched her, hoping that she was getting nowhere. But it was as if his presence into the bar had miraculously given Rebekah a great idea. She jumped off the bartop and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"So use me. I only wore it for a thousand years."

"See?" Gloria sighed. "Now this one offers a solution. All right, give me your hand, sweetheart."

Rebekah jumped up onto the table Gloria was performing her spell on and extended her hand for Gloria to use to her advantage.

* * *

"The only problem with my dad's normal side of the family...is normal made for a really boring summer," Bonnie admitted as Elena walked back and forth in the kitchen trying to finish off her family's chili. Caroline helped, too, and upon hearing Bonnie's confession, she turned around with a scoff.

"Well, after the last few days...I would kill for a normal family." She turned to look at Elena as they attempted to pour the chili into a bowl to transport to the party. "Since when did you learn how to cook?"

Elena sighed. "Damon helped a little. That's why he was here earlier. Well, not exactly..."

"Uh oh." Bonnie straightened. "You have your bitch face on. What happened, Elena?"

Her eyes flickered to Bonnie disapprovingly. "I don't have a bitch face. But what happened was, Damon and Amelia went to Chicago without me to find Stefan. And apparently while they were there, Klaus compelled Claire to forget about her feelings for Damon and—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Elena screamed in pain and dropped her hands from the chili bowl. Caroline put the bowl down on the counter and Bonnie and Caroline both looked at their friend with immediate concern.

"Did I splash you?" Caroline asked. Elena squirmed as she tried to remove the source of her pain.

"No! No, my necklace!" She reached up and tore her necklace off her skin, which had been burnt by the silver. Elena looked up at her friends, wide-eyed. "It burned me."

Caroline scoffed. "Maybe it's a sign you shouldn't be wearing it."

"Caroline!" Bonnie hissed. The blonde shrugged while Elena took off the necklace from her neck in order to prevent it from burning her further.

"What? She and Stefan broke up over six months ago. Don't you think it's time for her to move on?"

The witch scoffed and merely turned to the brunette in front of her and nodded to the necklace. "Let me see it."

Elena reached forward and extended the necklace to her while Bonnie reached out and grabbed it, but as soon as her fingers touched the silver pendant, a spark of electricity shocked her and Elena both and the necklace fell onto the counter, mystical energy radiating from its core.

* * *

Stefan watched cautiously as Gloria inhaled and opened her eyes. Claire made her way from around the bar and came to stand next to her friend, a few feet closer to Gloria than he was. They both held their breath as Gloria spoke.

"I found it."

Stefan and Claire tried not to look at each other, but they couldn't help it. This was serious. If Gloria found the necklace, it would lead them back to Mystic Falls, where Klaus would find out about Elena and things would go to hell yet again. Rebekah leaned forward impatiently.

"So where is it?!"

"It doesn't work like that, doll. I get images. There's a girl...with her friends—"

"Yes, a _dead _girl with _dead _friends if I don't get my necklace back!"

"Well, I have to dive back in to get the details."

"So dive," Klaus proposed as he walked closer to Gloria. Behind his back, Stefan and Claire shared a sigh of relief, but the stress wasn't over yet. Gloria turned to look at Klaus with heated eyes.

"I need more time." He leaned forward over her shoulder, as if waiting for her to continue. She sighed frustratedly. "And space! You're harshing my ju-ju."

"We can wait."

"I'm sure you can." She turned serious. "But that's not what I asked."

Things in the room turned stale extremely fast. Stefan, sensing the tension in the room, decided to walk forward to Klaus and ease things up a bit. He clapped his shoulder and nodded his head outside. "Hey, you know, why don't we just...uh, why don't we jut come back later? I'm hungry, anyway." Klaus didn't budge, so Stefan made it more appetizing for him. "I'll let you pick who we eat..."

Klaus stared at Rebekah, who looked off at Stefan as if she pined for him, which Klaus no doubt expected. But instead of following Stefan as he tried to leave, he looked over at Claire, who was silent beside him, waiting for them to decide what to do. He straightened himself and looked Claire right in the eye.

"Stefan, take Rebekah to get a bite to eat." Stefan paused and watched as Klaus nodded to Claire, who narrowed her eyes at him. "You and I are going somewhere else."

"And where are we going, exactly?"

"Be patient, love." He turned back to Gloria and threw her a small bit of the anger that he had reserved for her delay. "I have to go see a friend."

* * *

Elena sat nervously far away from the rest of the Founding Families with Caroline at the Lockwood party that she wanted to go to. She was sure Damon was around somewhere and reminded herself to go and find him after everything was done. Elena and Caroline turned their heads as Bonnie came rushing up the hill to them and sighed.

"Hey. Okay, I got it." She sat down on the bench and looked between them both. "I have an identification spell that might be able to tell me what magic affected the necklace." Elena nodded and handed over her necklace as Bonnie looked around cautiously. "It's going to take a while, so tell me if anyone's coming, okay?"

Elena and Caroline both nodded in silence, and after a moment of the painstakingly brutal quiet, Caroline had to speak. She turned to Elena sharply and said, "So I know this guy. His name is Mike, he's a varsity lacrosse player at school—"

"Caroline, what are you doing?" Elena asked her, sighing with exasperation. Bonnie broke her objective to look over at the urgent blonde.

"Caroline..."

"Stay focused." Caroline waved her hand at the witch and turned back at Elena. As Bonnie frowned and continued with the spell, Caroline continued her lecture. "Look, Elena, I just think it's time you move on, okay? Amelia has been searching high and low for Stefan and after everything, don't you think it's time for you to start dating again? Let Amelia deal with Stefan."

"Caroline, I'm not going to give up on Stefan. I told you that before."

"I know! And I'm not saying you should give up on him. But, Elena, it's about time you start getting back out there, you know? I hate you break it to you, but he chose her. He chose Amelia." Caroline looked at her with pitiful eyes, but Elena exploded.

"But he didn't, okay? He didn't! He loves me!" Elena exclaimed, and the second it came out of her mouth, she regretted it. Caroline stiffened, confused, but before she could say anything, Elena let out a shaky breath and asked, "Y-You know what, why are we even talking about this? I'm not dating anyone, Caroline. Let it go."

"But, Elena—"

"Hey. Guys..." Bonnie trailed off, and the two arguing friends looked over to find that Bonnie was staring down at the necklace that had been resting on her book and found that the necklace was slowly beginning to float upwards. Caroline flinched away from it.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything." They all stared at the necklace as it rose higher into the air. Bonnie shook her head. "It has its own magic."

Bonnie and Caroline looked over at Elena, who was just as confused as they were.

* * *

Damon walked around the picnic tables looking for some good alcohol and something to eat. But, like he had said to Elena earlier in the morning, all anyone had brought was chili. Lockwood Family Chili, Fell Family Chili, Gilbert Family Chili...chili, chili, chili. Elena should've listened to him. He was right. But he wasn't going to be a jackass about it and say something, that would just be mean.

So instead, Damon looked up at Alaric across the picnic table and sighed. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Founders parties are just an excuse for the Council to gather in back rooms and plot against vampires."

Alaric sighed and watched as Damon took a swig of the beer in his hand, but it wasn't strong enough for him and Alaric knew that. He could see Damon's tastes starting to refine. Alaric let out a deep breath and tried to get what he had been thinking off of his chest all day.

"Hey, man, I'm...I'm sorry about Claire." Damon turned around, as if the name-drop had been a slap in the face instead. Alaric continued. "But I don't want you to go down a downward spiral again. Maybe you should try to lay low for a bit."

He frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Elena can't watch you twenty-four seven. She told me about what happened when you didn't find Katherine in the tomb, I just don't want this to be a repeat of that."

"I'm fine, Ric."

"But are you?"

Damon sighed frustratedly. "Even if I wasn't, I don't really think it's your problem. I can handle myself."

"Well, obviously you can't. If you haven't noticed, Damon, you tend to go rogue when things don't go your way."

Damon stepped forward, pissed off now. He could see the judgement in his friend's eyes and didn't appreciate it one bit. Everyone was acting as if he were going to blow up like an atomic bomb all day, but all he had done was drink. That's all he wanted to do. He just wanted to drink in solitude, perhaps with a few girls on his arms, and just be left alone. But no one wanted to do that. And Alaric trying to convince him to stay on the good side just pissed him off even further.

Before he could say anything, though, Liz Forbes walked up behind Alaric's shoulder and interrupted them.

"Damon? Sorry." She looked at Alaric and gave him a pleasurable smile before turning back to the dark-haired vampire. "Uh, the mayor just called the Council meeting."

Damon looked at Alaric for a moment, anger still blazing in his eyes, but without anything more to say, he nodded at Liz and walked off with her to the meeting.

* * *

Claire and Klaus both stepped out of the taxicab in front of The University of Chicago's science building. Klaus spoke to the driver, most likely to compel him to wait for them at the main entrance because they would have to leave soon. When the taxi was gone, Klaus walked up to Claire's side and she turned to look at him with a cocked eyebrow.

"What are we doing here?" she asked. He nodded inside.

"Come on, love. I'll show you." Klaus ushered her into the building, where Claire followed him through the halls blindly, immensely confused as to why they were visiting a college. He had told Gloria he wanted to see a friend, but why would his friend be at a college? She didn't ask any questions, though, and merely followed him into one of the classrooms. They interrupted an entire class session, catching the teacher in the midst of his sentence regarding some mumbo jumbo about the pH levels in their experiment.

"Can I help you?" asked the teacher with an incredulous edge to his voice, slightly annoyed that Klaus interrupted his entire classroom. Klaus didn't even bother to respond, but merely looked around the classroom until he found who he was looking for, and she found him.

"Oh, my god!" Claire jumped hearing the near-shrill from one of the students who immediately ripped her goggles off her face and chucked them down on the floor. Klaus broke out into a wide smile, and Claire was taken back.

She'd never really seen him smile like that before, without a hidden agenda. What she expected to happen was that twenty-something, bright blonde would come into Klaus's arms and give him one of the sluttiest kisses she had seen in her lifetime, as Klaus wouldn't let that chance to go waste. But instead, she just came up to him and hugged him tightly, as did he. There was no romantic involvement in the hug at all, and that sort of scared her. The blonde pulled back in her hug with Klaus and smiled ear-to-ear.

"I can't believe it's you! It's really you! You know I don't graduate for another year. Why'd you come back?" she asked, a twinkle in her eye. His smile faltered slowly, and she realized. "Oh...you need help, don't you?"

"I do," Klaus admitted. She nodded.

"Okay. I can help." At this point, they both realized that they had been conversing in the middle of a summer session with about fifteen others in the classroom, including the teacher. The blonde's face turned a deep shade of red as she looked around and apologized quickly, but Klaus gave no thought. He took her hand and led her out of the classroom, leaving Claire to follow them.

"Eleanor, this is my friend, Clarissa King," Klaus introduced them as soon as they were out in the hallway. Eleanor turned to Clarissa, who was still a little puzzled over the situation, and stepped forward happily and pulled her into a sudden embrace. Claire tensed, and Klaus chuckled behind them. Eleanor squeezed her tight.

"It's so nice to meet you, Clarissa!" She pulled back and smiled. "Klaus calls me Eleanor, but you can call me Ellie."

Claire smiled softly, but she was completely taken off guard. Klaus could see her uncomfortableness as she said, "And you can call me Claire."

"Claire..." Ellie grinned and sighed dreamily. "Such a beautiful name. You know, Clarissa—or, Claire—your name means 'clear, bright'. My name, Eleanor, means a shining light. Because that's me, I light up everywhere I go! What about you? Do you make things clear for everyone?"

"Ellie..." Klaus stepped forward and chuckled under his breath as he watched Clarissa's eyes widen from the rambling she had heard. The young girl stepped back and Klaus looked at her deeply. "I think Clarissa's had a long day. Most likely didn't understand a word you just said, but that's alright. We're in a hurry."

"Of course." Ellie waved her hand dismissively. "You know I always get off topic. I'm so sorry, Klaus, what can I help you with?"

Klaus shook his head. "It's not that simple, Ellie. I think it's time you come with me."

Ellie paused, and Claire could see her bright smile completely dissipate from her face. Her lip trembled, as if she were about to cry. "But...but Klaus, I'm only a year from graduating! You promised me I'd graduate!"

"I'll compel the Dean to grant you early graduation. Come on, Ellie, you knew it would be this way."

"I thought I would have another year!"

"I'm sorry, Eleanor, but I need this." He looked at her sternly, and almost instantly she removed all signs of sadness and straightened. He hadn't compelled her, but it was like...like she knew what she had to do for him and decided to put his interests before her own willingly. "You understand?"

"I understand, Klaus. I'm just disappointed."

"I know you are, sweetheart. Go on, gather your things. Clarissa and I will be waiting at the front for you."

Ellie nodded and gave a small smile to Clarissa, as if attempting to make sure she didn't think she was a complete child, and walked in the other direction to gather her things by Klaus's demand. Klaus ushered Claire outside with him yet again, where they walked through campus to get to the front gates while Ellie packed her bags. Claire was so confused.

"You promised her she'd graduate? How long have you known Ellie?"

"Since she was thirteen." Klaus turned to look at the beauty of the campus as they walked. "I found her in a jail cell. She had been charged with murdering her whole family. They had found her earlier standing over her parents dead bodies soaked in their blood. When I talked to her, I realized that she hadn't meant to hurt anyone. Something extraordinary happened." The hybrid turned and looked at Clarissa, whose eyes had widened upon hearing the horrifying story. "Her magic was so strong, it created a surge that had killed her entire family during Thanksgiving. It was absolutely astonishing."

Claire stared at him, incredulous. "You're joking, right?"

He turned to her and studied the panicked look on her face. Klaus chuckled under his breath. "Clarissa, it's not like she _wanted _to kill her entire family! It would've tormented her to this very day, had I not eased her pain by giving her a forgetting potion to use on herself. I'm not a terrible human being."

"You're not a human being at all," she corrected, and soon after saw the small smile on his lips. "In fact, you're just...terrible, really."

"You don't believe that."

"Oh? I don't?"

"No. You don't." He turned to her sharply, stopping them in the middle of the campus. Claire frowned, feeling uncomfortable stopped in the middle of the pathway, but there was hardly anyone around, and those who did past them just cut onto the grass. His green eyes captured hers and held them hostage as he said lowly, "You're only denying everything that I compelled you to remember. You're denying our past."

"I'm not denying anything." She crossed her arms defensively. "I get it, okay? You and I had sex...many, many times. It happened, but it's never going to happen again."

"And why not?" He stepped closer with a mischievous grin. "If you're not denying anything, you can't possibly deny the fact that it was—"

"You killed me!" Claire interrupted him as she stepped away from him. Realizing that she'd said it a bit too loud, she took her voice down a few notches and sighed. Klaus stared at her blankly, but she just looked at him with disappointment. "You ripped out my heart on an altar of fire and then killed one of my closest friends. And because you were selfish enough to want to keep me around afterwards, you planted a revival spell in my ex-husband's head for him to use to martyr himself. Not only did you kill me, but you killed him, too!"

"But that's the point, Clarissa." He stepped forward again, and this time only a frustrated breath came out of her mouth instead of stepping back. "I gave Christopher that spell to _save _you. I never wanted you dead. Those memories prove that."

"Those memories prove nothing. The only thing they proved was that you didn't just want me, you wanted my heart, my time, my _life_—"

"Yes, all of which are true, but I don't see the issue here!" Klaus looked at her with confused eyes. "The Clarissa I knew would have forgiven me by now."

Claire stared at him and realized that he was serious. After a while, she couldn't help herself. A scoff came out of her lips and she said, quite harshly, "Then you must have never really known me at all, _Nik_."

She snarled his name with the utmost disgust, and two seconds later she turned on her heel and continued walking in the direction of the front gates. Klaus stared after her, wondering where he had gone wrong. He had thought that erasing Damon from her memory would ease his troubles, but it seemed to do nothing but make her even more unavailable to him.

Klaus sighed and merely followed her, the wheels turning in his head to figure out where he'd gone wrong and how to fix it.

* * *

"Did Stefan ever tell you where he got the necklace?" Caroline asked quietly as she and Elena walked through the Lockwood house to the front door, on their way out. Through the chaos of the necklace drama, Elena had entirely forgotten to make sure that Damon wasn't off somewhere ripping some girl's head off like Amelia had asked. To be honest, at that point, she really didn't care.

"No." Elena sighed. "And I never asked. Hopefully, Bonnie'll be able to figure it out."

"Please tell me it's time to go." Elena and Caroline looked over their shoulders to see Alaric settling a glass of bourbon down on a drink platter as he joined the two teenagers. She nodded.

"Beyond. Where's Damon?"

"Probably somewhere sulking in a dark room." Caroline turned and looked at Elena, as if she'd just registered what had happened. "I can't believe that someone would do something like that. What does Klaus have to gain by her hating Damon?"

Elena shrugged. "Amelia never said. I don't think she knows. Then again, I haven't really been in the 'loop' lately."

Caroline sighed, distraught, but before she could say anything more, something caught the corner of her eye, and her tone changed on a dime. She suddenly got very stiff and moved away from the open foyer to Elena's side. Elena, realizing the change in the atmosphere, looked at her friend with knotted eyebrows.

"What is it?"

"It's my dad," the blonde whispered. Elena turned and looked into the foyer, where she saw Bill Forbes conversing with a bunch of townspeople. She inhaled sharply.

"Why would he even show up here?"

"I don't know, but I...can't..."

"I get it. I'll call you later."

Caroline nodded gratefully to her and then, without a sound, made her way up the stairs to her boyfriend's room. When she was gone, Alaric turned to Elena, confused. "Okay...what was that all about?"

The doppelgänger shook her head dismissively. "I'll fill you in later. Let's go."

Without another word, Alaric and Elena quickly headed off into the night, but right as they stepped out onto the front lawn of the Lockwood's property, the door opened and shut behind them with a panicked voice following their path.

"W-Wait! Houston, we have a problem!" Damon informed them. Elena glanced quickly over her shoulder at the vampire, confused.

"Where've you been?" she inquired.

"Managing Bill Forbes. Apparently, he's impervious to compulsion."

"How?" Alaric asked, Damon's words making no sense. Damon quickly caught up with them.

"I have no idea. But he threatened to out me. Don't get me started on the irony of _that_."

"What'd you do to him? How do you know the compulsion doesn't work?" Elena asked quickly, earning a Damon look of disapproval.

"That's not the most important piece of information I mentioned, Elena!"

"Well, what does he want?" Alaric urged.

"He wants to control the Council. Says its been _compromised_."

"It has!"

"He wants to put vervain in the town's water supply!"

"Maybe it's not a bad idea," Elena suggested. "I mean, it'll help keep you in control with Claire and Stefan gone and Amelia and I both distracted..."

Damon suddenly stopped, causing Elena and Alaric to stop with him as he blocked their path. He looked at Elena, his expression furious. "What the hell are you saying, Elena? That I need someone to keep me in check? That no one can do it so we have to resort to poisoning the blood supply to make me _behave_?" She opened her mouth to say something, but he just spat, "I should've killed him this morning."

"He's Caroline's dad, Damon."

"Yeah, and when I kill him, she'll have one more parent than you do." He moved past Elena to go back into the Lockwood house, but right before he got past her, Alaric blocked him from his pathway angrily.

"Oh, come on, Damon!"

Damon snarled under his breath. "You're repeatedly killing my buzz today, Ric. Step aside."

But instead, that only made Ric angrier. He stepped forward harshly and shoved Damon back. "Yeah, it's not going to happen!"

Damon stopped in his tracks, Alaric's hand on his chest preventing him from moving closer. With a sigh and a shrug, Damon looked down at Alaric's hand to make sure that he was wearing the Gilbert ring before simply stating, "Your temporary funeral."

"Damon, no!" Before Elena could realize what was happening, Damon reached forward and snapped Alaric's neck so fast that he fell onto the floor within seconds. Elena's eyes went wide as she watched Alaric's limp body fall to the floor and then looked back at Damon with heated pupils. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Nothing." He brushed past her. "Absolutely _nothing_."

* * *

When Klaus, Ellie, and Claire returned to the abandoned warehouse that Stefan and Rebekah had scampered off to before they went to the University, they were surprised to find only Rebekah surrounded by at least three or four dead bodies on the floor. Despite the layer of dried blood that skidded across the floor, Rebekah looked impeccably flawless, not a blood stain anywhere. When she saw her brother and the two blonde trailing him, she jumped down from the top of the coffin she had been trapped in for a almost a century before and looked to greet them.

"Ooh. Did you bring dessert?" she asked, licking her lips as she eyed Ellie behind Klaus. Ellie swallowed thickly, obviously uncomfortable, but didn't freak out. Klaus sighed.

"Give it a rest, Rebekah. I found someone who can help us with our hybrid problem."

"_Your _hybrid problem, you mean."

"Since you lost the necklace that would have made this done and over to begin with, it is _our _hybrid problem." His sister scowled at him before he reached behind and brought Ellie forward. "This is Eleanor, she's one of my most prized possessions. She's going to help us out."

"You can call me Ellie," the bright-eyed witch smiled at the older vampire and extended her hand. Wearily, Rebekah allowed herself to reach forward as well, but Ellie suddenly jerked herself closer and grasped Rebekah's hand tightly. It was then that Rebekah began to felt violated, as if someone was combing through her every moment in life. Ellie squeezed her hand so tight, if she wasn't an Original Vampire, she was afraid it would break. Claire watched with panicked curiosity, hoping to God that Ellie wasn't as powerful as Klaus thought she was.

Suddenly, Ellie jerked away from Rebekah's hand and stepped back, bumping right into Klaus, who held her by her shoulders and waited for her to come down from the magic rush. At last, when Ellie opened her eyes, she looked at Klaus with wide, crazed ones.

"Uh oh."

Klaus shook his head. "No 'uh-oh's, Eleanor, tell me what you saw."

"Not much..." she trailed off. "A girl, her friends—"

"_Dead _girl. _Dead _friends, we've been through this!" Rebekah shouted angrily. Klaus turned around and hushed her, then looked back at Ellie urgently.

"What else?"

"I saw...I saw..." Ellie slowly turned her head, and Klaus followed the trail her eyes led him until her eyes finally landed on Claire. With a trembling arm, she picked up her hand and pointed at Claire, whose heartbeat began to race so quickly she could've fainted. "I saw _her_ with the girl wearing it."

The room fell deathly silent, and as she could see the anger build up in Klaus's eyes, she turned to Ellie with a small laugh.

"Me? No, you couldn't have seen me." She watched as Klaus stalked closer to her, but she took a weary step back and continued to laugh. "You know, K-Katherine told me that there are...are people that _look _like me, but they're not me. She killed one of them when she turned, that's why she hated me and—"

"After you turned into a vampire, there were no other _yous_, Clarissa." She found herself backed into a wall, and suddenly Klaus's hand came and smacked down on the drywall beside her head. She flinched, but tried not to make her guilt known.

In an attempt to steer the conversation, as her voice trembled, she asked, "H-How would you know?"

He ignored her. "You lied to me. You and Stefan both, you lied to me didn't you? You know something."

"What would I possibly know?!" she evaded, but before he could get something else out of her, as he stepped closer to box her into her corner, she snarled, "What would I possibly tell _y__ou_?"

Klaus paused. He realized, suddenly, that she was right. What would she tell him by her own free will? She made it clear earlier that she pledged no allegiance to him, no matter what he had done for her. His other option was to use compulsion, but look at where that got him. It was only a step in the wrong direction, and he didn't want to compel her again. Besides, it would be much quicker if...

Clarissa's body fell limp in Klaus's arms after he snapped her neck so fast that she couldn't see it coming. He let her heavy body rest on his shoulder as he dragged her over to Rebekah and Ellie and set Clarissa down by Ellie's feet. He stood up and looked at the witch seriously.

"Look in her head." He swallowed thickly. "Tell me what she knows."

Ellie, weary of the situation but destined to do what Klaus told her to, nodded slowly and sank down to her knees to the blonde vampire lying dead on the ground. She reached forward and touched her temple softly, a small hiccup escaping from Ellie's lips. Only two seconds passed before she pulled away and looked up at Klaus.

"What did you do to her?"

"Excuse me?" Klaus asked, annoyed. She looked down at Claire with a shake of her head.

"I...I can't see it. Her memories are so...so fuzzy. It's like someone erased half of her life."

Klaus looked down at Clarissa's frozen body and frowned. Rebekah scoffed at him. "Well, that bit you in the ass, Nik, didn't it?"

"Piss off, Rebekah," Klaus murmured under his breath before bending down to lift Clarissa in his arms. Ellie rose off the floor and Klaus jerked his head to her. "Come on, Eleanor. I will put Clarissa away for safekeeping and then you and I are going to find Stefan. I'm sure he knows just as much as she does."

"I'm not sure where he went," Rebekah admitted. Klaus looked back at her as she shrugged. "He mentioned getting another bite to eat, but I had a feeling he was lying."

Klaus nodded at her. "Stay here in case he comes back."

His sister agreed, and Klaus walked out of the warehouse with Ellie on his tail and the dead Clarissa in his arms.

* * *

"Whoa, whoa!" Damon exclaimed as he stalked into the Lockwood office to see Bill Forbes pouring himself a drink unexpectedly. "Is that scotch? I figured you for an abstainer."

Bill turned at him. "Everything in moderation. Keeps the mind clear from...influence."

Damon crossed his arms and cocked his head curiously. "Like vampire compulsion."

"Yeah, I tried to tell you—"

"Yeah, yeah, powerful tool...got it." The vampire sighed. "I am impressed. Can't say I've ever seen that before."

"Well, it takes a certain _human _focus. It's a skill that I've been honing for decades. Plus, your technique..." Bill trailed off, as if he were trying to find a way to put his words lightly, "...is a little lazy."

"Duly noted." Despite the rude comment, Damon continued to walk further into the room with a suspicious, calm look on his face. "I'm curious. Why not just expose us to the council?"

Mr. Forbes stiffened. "I know you think I'm the bad guy here, Damon, but I would never expose my own daughter to these morons."

"It's a pretty risky move, taking me on, don't you think?"

"I knew what I was risking when I didn't leave town, but I figured...you're not self destructive enough to kill the Sheriff's ex-husband."

Damon grinned sourly at his opponent, who stared at him with misplaced certainty. Maybe, if he hadn't witnessed his girlfriend being compelled by a hybrid dick to forget their entire lives together, the Sheriff's ex-husband would be right, but then again...he did, and so Bill was wrong.

"Makes you the third person to underestimate me today."

Before Bill could make anything out of what Damon muttered under his breath, Damon sped forward and sunk his fangs into Bill's neck, holding his head so tight that Bill could barely move a muscle without Damon putting him down. Damon drank harder and harder, attempting to finish the job, but he realized quickly that he wanted more than just a snatch and eat. He yearned for the taste of forced blood on his mouth, something he'd yet to experience in a while. Attempting to revel in it, Damon pushed Bill off of him so that Caroline's father knelt on the floor, clutching his wound desperately.

"Whoo!" Damon exhaled as he licked his lips free of the blood that dripped from them. "You know, with all this behavioral modification going on around here, I almost forgot how good blood tastes when it's..." He licked his lips again and sighed, "_Fresh_."

"What are you gonna do? Kill everybody who discovers your secret?"

"No. I'm not gonna kill you, Bill." _Lies. _Damon bent down to stare into the Sheriff's gay ex-husband's eyes with an insatiable thirst for blood. "I'm just gonna take pleasure in perfect little moments like this."

His fangs barred again, but this time, he'd only gotten a small taste before he felt himself being thrown off of Bill Forbes, against a wall, and then through the window of the Lockwoods' office. He could see the faint outline of Caroline, no surprise. She rushed over to her father's side.

"Daddy, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Damon lifted himself from the floor just as Caroline offered her blood to her father, who initially refused to take it, but Caroline forced him to anyways. As she made her father drink her blood from her wrist, Damon growled at her.

"Let me teach this ass-wheel a life lesson!"

"Just get out of here," Caroline mumbled to him as he came behind her. Damon didn't like the sound of her tone; it was too threatening. It only made him angrier than he was already.

"Or what?!"

She whipped around and slapped him so hard that he stumbled back, and the next thing he knew, she was running towards him to finish the job. Instead, Damon was ready and blocked her attack, forcing her back onto the desk in the office so that she landed with a painful groan. He climbed on top of her and wrapped his hand around her throat so tightly that she screamed, and Damon couldn't control himself. It was as if the blood in his veins boiled so hot he had no control over his mind or body whatsoever.

"I'm stronger than you, little girl!" he snarled.

"Well, I'm angrier!" Caroline snapped back as she took his hand around her throat and twisted it back. Then, in a following sequence, she head-butted him and forced him off of her so hard that his back hit the wall behind him. Caroline then rushed to her father and dragged him out of the room fast enough that Damon could not catch up. When he saw they were gone, he slumped against the wall he had hit and rolled his eyes.

"Bummer. I love a good girl fight." He lifted himself from the floor and stumbled upright to see Elena and Amelia standing at the door. He winced at the pain in his back before shooting a confused look towards Amelia. "Little King, what are you doing here? I thought I wasn't your problem for today?"

"What the hell is your fucking problem, Damon?!" Amelia shouted at him as she blew up unexpectedly, marching over to the vampire in front of her with burning eyes. "Do you even realize what you're doing? Who you're hurting? Get your shit together, damn it!"

"Me? I should get my shit together?" Damon scoffed. "Look at you, Miss I'm-So-Perfect! You're gallivanting around fighting for a guy who doesn't even love you anymore! You and Elena both, you should listen to your own lectures and get your fucking shit together before you go judging mine."

"Damon, this isn't you." Elena stepped forward from behind Amelia and looked at the vampire before her with pitiful, yet furious eyes. "But more importantly, this _can't _be you. Not in this town, not around everyone. You have to learn how to control yourself!"

"Why is it suddenly so important for everyone to keep me in check? Why? Because I had to witness the love of my life staring down at me with so much hatred it cut like a knife?"

"Because we will find a way to fix this!" Elena shouted at him. He stared at her with his teeth gritted as she snapped, "And when Claire realizes what you've done, she'll hate you more for it. I'm trying to save you."

"No one asked you to, Elena. No one ever asks you to." He stepped closer to her, a snarl on his lips. "How about you stay out of my business? How about you stay out of Stefan's business? How about you stay out of _everyone's _business and try figuring out your own for once!"

Elena stared at him, slack-jawed, but he didn't care. He brushed past her again, but just as he turned to leave the room, Amelia stepped in front of him with an equally pissed off vampire face.

"We can still...we can still _try _to save them, Damon—"

"I don't care anymore." He looked her up and down with an evil spark in his eyes. "And neither should you."

Amelia opened her mouth, but nothing came out. He saw her at a loss for words, and he took that as his cue to leave the room. He left Amelia and Elena standing at a loss for the second time in only a few short weeks, but he didn't care this time. This time it was over. This time, he knew there was no going back. What was done was done and that was it.

* * *

Klaus stormed into the warehouse again looking for his sister. Ellie was by his side, and Claire was already in one of his trunks ready to be transported when they decided to make a move. However, when returning to Gloria's bar earlier to look for Stefan, Klaus came upon a surprising discovery.

"Gloria's gone! She's cleared out." Klaus and Ellie stopped as they stumbled upon Rebekah and Stefan standing side by side, a caught look on Stefan's face and a pissed one on the other Original vampire. Klaus cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on?"

"Where's Claire?" Stefan asked, desperately trying to take himself off the hotspot, but Rebekah wasn't having it.

"He's lying." Rebekah snuck a glance at Stefan, who began to panic at the blonde's words. "Something's definitely wrong. He was asking about Mikael." She turned her head to Stefan with a sigh. "He's not with us, Nik. I can sense it."

"She's wrong." Stefan stepped forward cautiously and smiled at his friend. "Klaus..."

But Klaus didn't buy it. He already knew something was wrong, that part Stefan didn't know. But, naturally, Klaus wasted no time with playing games and instead snapped his friend's neck and threw him into one of the trunks with Clarissa for the two of them to occupy until he could get them to their destination.

* * *

"I'm not gonna say I told you so," Caroline informed Elena as they walked through the town square in the bright summer sun. Elena exhaled in relief.

"Thank you."

"...But I did tell you."

"Caroline..." Elena let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, you were right, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I know I have to move on from Stefan, but I...I don't really know how to do that. I didn't tell you before, but right before the ritual, Stefan and I had this...this moment where he told me—"

Caroline suddenly came to a stop in the middle of the center of town, and Elena stopped as well to look her right in the eye so that she could get what she was thinking off her chest. Caroline looked as if she'd had enough of Elena's rambling and just decided to end it all of a sudden.

"Wait...it's been a long week, so I'm just gonna be blunt. Stefan doesn't love you. You may _think _he loves you because of whatever he said to you before you almost _died, _but he doesn't. Even if he does, why do you keep waiting around for him like he's some knight and shining armor on a white horse coming to rescue you any day now?" Elena flinched at Caroline's words, but Caroline continued without remorse. "Just admit it, Elena, you need to move on. You need to get your own life and stop trying to live one that's toxic for you. You need to get over him! It's the only way you're ever going to be happy."

"I can't, Caroline!" Elena snapped, causing Caroline to stop talking in the middle of her thought process. She switched her brain off from the talking part to the listening part as she saw the look of utter distress on Elena's face. "If I admit that I need to move on...if I _try _to move on, that means it's really over. And I don't think I'm ready for that." Elena watched as Caroline shifted her look from angry to pitiful, and so the brunette just scoffed and turned to sit on one of the benches near her with a scoff. "Oh, God. Shit. Now what does that say about me?"

"It says you're human, Elena." Caroline slowly walked over to the bench and sat down on the other side of her friend, who had her hands on her knees and was breathing in and out of her mouth trying to calm herself down. However, Caroline still looked at Elena with that pointed look in her eyes. "But it doesn't say that you're wrong for wanting that or...or _doing _that. Stefan would want you to be happy, you know. Torturing yourself, being angry at Amelia, putting your heart and soul into having hope for Damon and Claire...that's not making you happy."

Elena paused. She'd never thought about it that way. Just as she was about to say something, Caroline's eyes flickered up, where she smiled, which caused Elena to immediately grow curious. When her eyes followed where Caroline's went, she looked up to find a handsome seventeen-year-old standing a few feet in front of them with two coffees in his hand.

"Hey, Caroline." The teenager said. Elena and Caroline both stood from the bench as the teenager walked over to them. His eyes glanced over Elena, who tried to contain her appreciation for his looks. "And you are...?"

"Elena."

Elena turned to Caroline with prompting eyes, and Caroline gasped. "Right! Right, Elena, this is Mike, the lacrosse player I was talking about."

Mike rolled his eyes. "Wow, Caroline, you really gave her all the details."

"I have to leave some things for her to find out." Elena turned to look at Mike, and the moment she saw him smile, she thought to herself that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spend a few minutes with him. When Caroline looked up and saw her father walking across the town square, she touched Elena's arm gently and nodded to her. "Have fun."

"Thank you," Elena mouthed to Caroline as the blonde vampire walked away into the daylight, leaving Elena and Mike, who extended an extra coffee to her as he sat down on the bench with her by his side.

* * *

After Alaric practically spat in his face, Damon was subjected to sitting alone on his couch drinking the rest of his bourbon in solitude. He had to admit, he enjoyed the peace and quiet, but there was something about being alone with his thoughts that made him uneasy. As he drank himself to oblivion, he barely noticed Amelia dragging two suitcases down the stairs, each with at least three or four boxes stacked on top of them. When she wheeled them around to the door, Damon looked over at her disinterestedly and watched as she flipped her pale blonde hair over her shoulder to sneak a look at him. He frowned.

"What the hell are you doing, Blondie?"

"Leaving." She parked her suitcases and put her hands on her hips as she walked into the parlor. Damon cocked an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. "All the renovations are done at the King house. I'm moving in."

Damon scowled through his bourbon glass. "That's what you've been doing while you had Elena babysit me? Renovations at your goddamn house? There's a perfectly good room for you right in this one!"

"Yeah, well, Damon, I don't like waking up every day being reminded of the person who apparently doesn't love me anymore!" she snapped, so angrily that Damon could see her practically shaking. He kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything for the life of him. "You can torture yourself all you want, binge drink and kill people and wreck havoc everywhere for all I care. I need to get the hell out of this house. You're more than welcome to come with me."

Damon watched as she turned to her suitcases, but under his breath he muttered, "Why the hell would I go anywhere with you?"

She heard it. She stopped at the doorway with her two suitcases and sighed. "I know I'm a constant reminder of the pain she caused. But you can choose to either mope around or get off your lazy ass and do something about it. Let me know what you decide...or don't. See if I care."

With that said, she refused to say anything else to him as she left the Salvatore house for good. Damon didn't stop her or go with her. He just sat on the couch and drank and drank and drank and drank until he heard something that faintly sounded like a knock on the door. In his half-drunken stupor, he stumbled over to the door and opened it softly to find Elena standing on his front step with a peeved look on her face. Damon crossed his arms angrily.

"I'll accept only written apologies only." He paused. "And maybe not even then. I'm super pissed at you right now."

Elena cocked her head with disapproval, but then something strange happened. A cat-like smile spread across her thin lips, and she popped her hip and put her arm out as if she were proud of something. He knew immediately who it was.

"So little Miss Perfect isn't so perfect anymore. What'd she do now? Breathe? That always gets me going."

Damon groaned and banged his head against the door as he muttered, "Katherine! What do you want?"

"I'm just a girl looking for a partner in crime." She held up her hands in defense as Damon took himself away from the door, not wanting any of whatever she was offering. But as she went on, he got more intrigued. "You feel like hitting the road? Getting the hell out of dodge?"

Damon stopped just as he was about to go back into the parlor and grab his bourbon. He turned around and frowned at her.

"Impeccable timing. I was told that I am welcome to wreck havoc for all I want."

Katherine stepped into the Salvatore house with an eyebrow raised. "Is that a yes? I'll drive."

Damon stared down at her as she looked up at him with her cat-like eyes and her slick smile. He knew it was a bad idea, but at that moment, he really didn't feel like being stuck in the house doing nothing but getting drunk and possibly going into Claire's room to trash her things. He was starting to feel why Amelia decided she needed to get the hell out of their house.

"Why not?" Damon shrugged. "The walls are starting to close in on me here anyway. Where are we going?"

"Away from here. That's all I'm going to give you for right now, but believe me." She grinned as she held up Elena's necklace in her hand, the necklace that she had stolen from Bonnie while pretending to be Elena. Damon stared down at it, knowing that it was wrong, but not really caring. Katherine chuckled. "It's good."

* * *

Claire shook Stefan so hard she was afraid that he would wake with the shakes at that point. She whisper-hissed his name over and over and over again, knowing full well that Klaus was right behind her watching her every move. She needed him to get up. She slapped him a few times on the face, trying to rouse him from his sleep, and finally, Stefan woke with a gasp to look right into his best friend's alarmed eyes. He scooted back as he saw Klaus standing in the corner of the back of the truck, and Claire bowed her head in defeat as Stefan held out a hand to Klaus to try to explain.

"Just give me a chance to explain myself, okay?"

"No need." Klaus shrugged. "I'm not mad, I'm just curious. My witch found that Claire knows something about Rebekah's necklace that she's not telling me about and Rebekah seems to think that you're holding onto something, a piece of your own life. The thing is, she's got flawless instincts...borderline supernatural...so I thought I would check it out." Klaus walked forward closer to them and bent down, his face right next to Clarissa's. She flinched away from him, but Stefan and Claire both watched as a sadistic smile overcame Klaus's face. "See for myself what it is you two have been hiding."

Stefan helped Claire up as Klaus lifted himself up from his squat to march his way over to the end of the truck they were in and lift the compartment door. Bright light flooded into the dark truck and, when looking outside, Claire and Stefan could see the all-too-familiar town square of Mystic Falls. Klaus looked at Stefan and Claire with a greedy smile.

"Welcome back to Mystic Falls."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**

* * *

**Katie00980: **I know it's so sad :( Klaus always has a bad way of going about things lol. The dynamic with Claire will be interesting, especially when Claire learns some secrets of Klaus's past in the midst of Damon trying to win her back the old-fashioned way. Claire's still hot-headed, even without hating Damon, so she's still pretty upset that (a) Klaus abandoned her, (b) Klaus killed her, and (c) she just things Klaus is an evil dick haha but maybe she'll get over it eventually...Thanks for the review!

**NicoleR85: **That's the next chapter and I'm excited to see how it goes too! Here's the update, hope it wasn't too long :)

**heytay1: **Thank you! Here's the update!

**klandgraf2007: **Oh wow thank you! Yeah lol it's Damon, of course he handled it this way, but maybe he'll get better in the next few chapters, we'll see. I mean, it's got to be tough though because he's basically been trying since forever to get her to love him and when she finally shows something towards him, Klaus ups and takes it away that's got to hurt, you know? Claire will handle it with grace, as she always does, but you know she's still gonna put up a fight because...well, it's Claire :P I'm glad you enjoyed it and here's the chapter! By the way, those flashbacks of Damon and Claire in the 20s are coming this season, but I have something a little bit more special planned for those!

**HALEBTRASH:** I don't know I haven't decided...we'll see how things work out :)

**Adela: **Thank you!

**vampangel25: **Lol it is! Thanks for the review!

**Gigi: **He fucked everything up ;P I'm sorry! It'll get better though...eventually. Thanks for the review!

**grapejuice101: **He did! Here's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed it!

**SomebodyWhoCares: **:(

**Guest: **Haha I'm glad. Thanks for reviewing!


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